88 Fingers Louie (named after a shady piano salesman from the Flintstones cartoon) has played a very important part in Chicago’s rich punk rock heritage. The seminal Chicago melodic punk/hardcore band got their official start in 1993 they quickly started writing, playing shows and released three 7” records during their first year as a band. The band’s sound was unique and a combination of all the things they loved about punk-rock— drawing influences from 80’s California punk, east coast hardcore as well as midwestern hometown heroes the Bollweevils, Naked Raygun and Pegboy. A lot has changed in the 18 years since Chicago’s 88 Fingers Louie last released an album. Shortly after the release of a split EP in 1999 with Philadelphia’s Kid Dynamite, the band decided to call it quits due to differences in vision for the band’s future. Its previous members went on to form and join almost a dozen new bands in the wake of 88FL’s demise (Rise Against, Explode and Make Up, The Story So Far, Paper Mice, Alkaline Trio and many more). This is a story with many stops and starts, ups and downs and many of the players have come and gone throughout the band’s career. What’s most important is that they are back with a new album entitled Thank You For Being a Friend, and they can’t wait for you to hear it. 88 Fingers Louie has teamed up with Florida’s Bird Attack Records to release the new album and they are aiming for a summer 2017 release. Not a day goes by since we got the band back together that I don’t scratch my head once a day and say ‘We’re actually doing this now—this is crazy,’...but I couldn’t be more excited.” For fans of Authority Zero, Pennywise, Bigwig, Guttermouth