DeadFinger “DeadFinger” 2022. Spectrogram Records. Acoustic alternative/punk rock from Milwaukee courtesy of Daniel Kubinski (Die Kreuzen, FuckFace) and Dwain Flowers (FuckFace). The duo (Kubinski on vocals and acoustic guitar, Flowers on drums) forming was one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic: they got together to jam (safely) during the early shutdown days. (From an interview with Kubinski on The Big Takeover: We “divided our rehearsal spot into two sections with a sheet of clear plastic firmly and 100% attached to the walls, ceiling, and floor. We put a construction zipper in the center of the plastic so that I could get into my half with all my gear and PA on my side and Dwain and his drums on the other side. I’d get to the rehearsal spot early and zip myself in and Dwain would show up 15/20 mins later and we’d get to work. He would leave first when the jam was over and he’d open a window before he left to let fresh air in. I’d wait another 15 or 20 mins for the air to clear, unzip my half of the room and leave. It worked very well and we got a ton of work done that entire time without either of us getting sick.”) They played a few shows, including one that we saw last fall (October ’21) when they opened for Wreckless Eric at Club Garibaldi in our neighborhood, and also began working on writing/recording their debut s/t LP.

Danny Kubinski of DeadFinger at Shank Hall

DeadFinger at Shank Hall

We just saw DeadFinger play again last week, this time at Shank Hall opening for H.R. of Bad Brains. They sounded amazing: Dan Kubinski’s voice is really strong, clear and honestly sounds as good or better live than on their excellent album. They played several tracks from the mostly cover song-filled DeadFinger including Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant” (I shot about a minute of video of them in October ’21 playing that song, you can view it here), Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream,” Hüsker Dü’s “Don’t Want to Know if You are Lonely,” and “Dancing Barefoot” by Patti Smith, which Kubinski introduced by telling the audience about how he saw Smith in concert a few years ago and that it changed his life. They also the DeadFinger original “Ghosts” which is, as the song title suggests, dark and haunting. The rhythm is stark and insistent over which Kubinski’s voice swoops and soars; it’s gorgeous and eery.