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Following the demise of Alligator Gun and Loomis, Pele was formed in the summer of 1997 by guitarist Chris Rosenau, bassist Scott Schoenbeck, and drummer Jon Mueller. Two weeks before recording their debut album Teaching the History of Teaching Geography, the trio brought aboard bassist Scott Beschta to play keyboards. The keyboards proved to be the dominant musical element of the album as well as its companion remix disc People Living with Animals. Animals Kill People., which included remixes from Bundy K. Brown, Mark Greenberg and future Pele member Jon Minor. Shortly thereafter, both Scotts left Pele. Schoenbeck agreeed to assume Beschta's onetime bass duties in The Promise Ring, Beschta moved to NYC to join old friends New Rising Sons.

Down to a duo and without a bassist, Rosenau and Mueller soon recruited bassist Matt Tennessen whom they'd worked with in the pre-Pele group Tussin. As a trio, the band discovered their trademark sound, re-entering the studio to record 1999's Elephant. While to this point critics had dubbed the band post-rock, they now heard the striking jazz elements found in the songs' collective underbelly. The guitars were now nimble. The bass was rolling. The drums were skittering with angular fills and layered beats.

Spring 2000 saw the band signing with Polyvinyl Records in time to release their fourth album, The Nudes. The album received a strong push from college radio and, based on their raucous, incendiary live sets, the band was quickly beginning to make a name for themselves. In addition, Rosenau and Mueller could be found throughout various Milwaukee nightclubs performing in improvisational groups. The previous year, the two had founded Crouton Records in 1999, a label dedicated to improvisational and experimental recordings. This experimentation would carry over into their fifth full-length, 2002's Enemies.

Enemies saw the arrival of new Pele member Jon Minor on laptop. A long-time Pele associate, Minor's addition proved to be the perfect compliment to the band's sound. Starkly different than previous Pele efforts, Enemies fully embraced the band's improvisational jazz moments and filtered them through syncopated handclaps, voices, and various blips and bleeps.

Furthering their reputation for turning in blistering live performances, 2002 also marked Pele's first tour of Japan. On a nightly basis, Japanese television crews followed the band from venue to venue, simultaneously broadcasting their performances to television sets across the country. The band won over a new horde of fans as unprecedented amounts of Japanese mail orders began flooding the Polyvinyl office. Three songs from this tour were later released with Polyvinyl's 2003 reissue of Elephant, and a DVD of the tour is currently in the works for release on Crouton.

After 7 years, 13 releases, and various national and international tours, Pele announced that their winter 2004 tour would be their last. Over the years, it had been a pleasure to work with them and their contributions to the label will sorely be missed. Fortunately, their members will continue to make music. Guitarist Chris Rosenau, percussionist Jon Mueller, and laptopist Jon Minor have a new full-length out under the Collections of Colonies of Bees moniker, available from Crouton. Bassist Matt Tennessen will continue his work with Paris, Texas who released their 2004 full-length, Like You Like an Arsonist, on New Line Records.

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