It all began humbly in a Chicago apartment over a decade ago when roommates Jay and Nate decided to buy a bass and guitar.  They quickly put together a catalog of original ideas and songs. The two of them continued playing together years later when Nate moved to Minneapolis, reuniting with Jay.

In early 2001 Chris began sitting in with Jay and Nate, contributing the 4 chords he knew on his guitar. Tom started coming over to lend his support, finding places to “rain down metal thunder.”
How do we all know each other you ask? Well, besides being from the same Wisconsin hometown of Appleton, Jay and Nate were childhood friends and roommates in college. Tom and Chris worked together for a summer and became friends. Tom introduced Chris to Lisa (who happened to be Nate’s sister), they eventually got married, making Nate Chris’ brother in law and vice versa. We all moved up to the Twin Cities years later, Packer games brought us all together. Got that? Good.

It was March 2001 and we needed a name. The name “Toaster Fork” was born after a weekend at a secluded cabin at Lake Maria State Park when Nate thought it an electrifyingly funny concept to put a fork in a toaster.
Our Thursday night practice sessions soon outgrew the 11×11 spare bedroom we used for practice space. A decision was made to move the fledgling ’studio’ to the basement. Two things were apparent after a few sessions in the basement. 1) Ten-watt practice amps were fine for playing in a small room, but not nearly loud enough for the basement. 2) We needed a drummer.

A crude ad was placed in various music stores around the Cities. One person answered the posting. That’s how God sent us Bob. An accomplished drummer and all around laid back guy, Bob agreed to sit in for a night to see what is was that we did. It was loud, REALLY loud! It was clear we needed him!

At first we mixed in a couple covers, but quickly realized that focusing on our own material was more fulfilling. After all: Nate and Jay had dozens of songs already written, and we felt we had something to say. Meanwhile the “11th Hour Studio” was slowly taking shape with the addition of, umm, a few small inexpensive items. Why the “11th Hour Studio”? We found that our best material came to us after 11PM.

Toaster Fork played their first show in the basement studio to an anxious, privately invited, audience on July 13th, 2002. We were received with a groundswell of support! The fire to play live was ignited.

We played another basement show in November 2002, under the band name “Rope Limit”. HEY PAL, every band makes mistakes; Rope Limit was ours. A few weeks after the show, after some pretty direct feedback from our fans, we came to our senses and changed back to “Toaster Fork”.

March 6th, 2003 was another milestone in Toaster Fork’lore. It was our first public, paying gig, and was at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. We opened for a national act, SpyMob. We tasted the energy of a live audience, touched a few nerves in the community, felt the underbelly of rock and roll, and liked what we smelled.

January, 2004 brought us local media attention with a spot on the front page of the Star Tribune’s metro section. February 13th, 2004 marked the first headlining gig in Toaster Fork history. Our friends SourBelly from Wisconsin traveled up to the 400 Bar to join us on stage for a night of fear and love. Fork on!

2005 was a pivotal year: “Toaster Fork!” moved to a new studio location, added Mark “Dr. Danger” Hovey (a neighbor of Chris and Tom’s!) on lead guitar, parted ways with Drum Bob, and added Dan “Drum Dick” Mills, whom we found via an ad we placed online: one audition and there was no mistaking that Dan was the perfect fit.

2005 also offered us the opportunity to do some soundtrack work for the 48 Hour Film Festival in Minneapolis. The Fork! provided the soundtrack for one of the entries submitted by our friend Brett Tomkins of Granite Ridge Productions. Man was it fun to hear our music in a theater filled to capacity. We ended the year with a Christmas time concert at our favorite venue, the 400 Bar, for the first time with the new lineup. It was a great way to end the year.

In 2006 we played gigs at the Linden Hills Festival, at the 400 Bar and at the Minnehaha Falls Ampitheater as our full lineup really started to soidify.  If you are reading this no doubt you’ve listened to a few sample tunes and heard the maturity of the band. Songs like “Mine” showcase what a legitimate lead guitarist has brought to the Fork!, and Drumdicks’ passion for the skins has unleashed the full force of Toaster Fork! “A Matter of Time” proves that we’re sticking to our forte, that is playing music that might appeal to all of you out there.

It’s 2007, and we already have a gig at the 400 Bar under our belt, gearing up for our CD release party.  We’ve been at the recording studio (www.silverantrecords.com) since July, 2006 and plan on releasing our first CD in May, 2007!
This site and our music represents four years of fan support, dedication, rock and roll, creativity, consumption, late nights, expensive gear and tolerant, saintly spouses. We hope you enjoy our little ‘hobby’ as much as we do. Oh, and let us know what you think! email us at toaster@toasterfork.com