Rising from the ashes of
Rodan in late 1994,
June of 44 continued guitarist
Jeff Mueller's mercurial muse, enlisting the talents of a host of long-distance collaborators for prolifically released and stylistically varied albums. During a relatively short lifespan, the project touched on hard-edged math rock and the expanded instrumentation of post-rock, as well as dabbling with bringing samples, loops, and electronics into the mix on 1999's
Anahata. The band dissolved in 1999 after a fiery and non-stop five-year run but regrouped in 2018 and eventually released a new collection, Revisionist: Adaptations & Future Histories in the Time of Love and Survival, in August of 2020.
Following the sudden demise of
Rodan in late 1994, guitarist
Jeff Mueller kept Louisville's math rock flame burning with his new band,
June of 44. Along with contemporaries like
the For Carnation and
Slint,
June of 44 crafted loud, dissonant, complex guitar rock as intellectual as it was forceful. They evolved quickly into an entity more in line with the emerging post-rock scene, implementing arrangements that augmented heavy guitars with electronics, sampled loops, and chamber jazz flourishes courtesy of strings, trumpet, and vibes.
Mueller teamed up with
Lungfish's
Sean Meadows (who switched from bass to guitar), bassist/trumpeter Fred Erskine (a veteran of Dischord bands Hoover and
the Crownhate Ruin), and drummer
Doug Scharin, who'd played in the groundbreaking slowcore bands
Codeine and Rex. The band's name was inspired by a variety of factors, chiefly the date of correspondence between erotic fiction writers Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin; the month also coincided with the birth of
Mueller's mother and the military service of
Meadows' grandfather. With the members living in different cities, they first convened for a recording session in New York; the results were released in the summer of 1995 by
Rodan's former label, Quarterstick, as the group's debut album,
Engine Takes to the Water. Given the short gestation period, the music strongly recalled the angular riffs, extreme dynamic range, and shifting meters of
Rodan.
With their second album, 1996's
Tropics and Meridians,
June of 44 established themselves as a top-notch experimental indie band, offering a more fully realized take on the sound of their debut. In the meantime,
Scharin kicked off the solo side project
HiM, pursuing dubby, experimental post-rock and recording at a prolific pace, often with assistance from Erskine.
Meadows also started a side project called
the Sonora Pine with
Tara Jane O'Neil, one of
Mueller's ex-bandmates in
Rodan; they released two albums over 1996-1997. Erskine, meanwhile, moonlighted with the bluesy, D.C.-based
the Boom. The members' outside exploits -- which were generally of a subtler nature -- soon began to make themselves felt in
June of 44's music, starting with 1997's transitional
Anatomy of Sharks EP.
1998's full-length
Four Great Points signaled the band's even more experimental new direction, making greater use of
Scharin's interest in electronic music and Erskine's trumpet-playing skills. That year,
Scharin also debuted another avant-garde side project, the eclectic Out in Worship (aka Out of Worship). The fourth
June of 44 album, 1999's
Anahata, expanded on the model of its immediate predecessor, deepening the jazz influence and sampling techniques; there were also substantial contributions from violin/viola player Julie Liu.
Anahata was followed later that year by an EP,
In the Fishtank; it was part of a series from the Dutch label Konkurrent, which offered limited free studio time to intriguing bands on tour in Europe. It proved to be the final
June of 44 release for some time, as the band broke up shortly after its release.
Meadows quickly embarked on two projects,
the Letter E and the solo
Everlasting the Way, while Erskine played trumpet in
Abilene in addition to several other sideman gigs.
Scharin continued with
HiM, also playing with
Loftus and
Mice Parade, among others.
Mueller, for his part, subsequently reunited with
Rodan guitar mate Jason Noble in
the Shipping News.
In 2018,
June of 44 reunited and played their first shows since disbanding almost 20 years prior. The next year they began work on new recordings, many of which revisited old songs
Mueller felt never met their best articulation when they were first put to tape. In August of 2020, the band released Revisionist: Adaptations & Future Histories in the Time of Love and Survival, an eight-song album that included remixes, re-recordings of older songs, and previously unreleased material from the band's run in the '90s. ~ Steve Huey & Fred Thomas