In middle school in the 80s Joel Bartenbach was playing as Baby Jim Brofski along side Cap’n Jack Koogim in the punk band the Modern Citizens. In 1990 he crossed paths with the Poets front man Matt Brothers and the two decided to join forces and form a new band. When it became apparent the Hebrew they were taught in their Catholic religion class was not exactly used correctly, or even spelled right in some cases, they decided to use these sentences in their work and originally formed as the Shalom Abba Adoniac. The band carried over fellow Poets Matt Kinghorn, Darrin Hoop, and Jerry Powell though nobody really knew how to play instruments well or at all. The Shalom Abba Adoniac would release their debut album Ms. Iladnav the same year, an album of chaotic genius fusing pre recorded classic music with punk and creative nonsense.

Over the next two years the band would pick up and learn real instruments and started writing their own songs from scratch. In 1992 the band shortened the name to The Shaloms and together with newly added Grandpa Benjamin Shine released Mr. McPirt featuring the song Death by Shishkabob.

1993 was really The Shaloms breakthrough year. With everyone going off to college or traveling the world the band found themselves in a challenging situation. Joel Bartenbach and Matt Brothers were all who was left and little did they know then that the two would keep the band together for the rest of their lives. This time around fellow Modern Citizens guitarist Cap’n Jack Koogim would join the band with Darrin Hoop as special guest on triangle for their release of Kidd Plaza. While the album didn’t win over the hearts and minds of the people the song Chocolate Candy Bar would become a cult classic, sung thousands of times in bowels of Broad Ripple’s smoky taverns over the next few years.

Then Joel moved to Seattle, Washington.

Starting in 2002 Joel Bartenbach had a short stint in Indy that allowed The Shaloms to partner with FDQ Records and record two more albums. In 2003 The Shaloms released Crock of Nincompoop that would sort of define The Shaloms in the modern era. The album was recorded on a very old 8 track analog recorder and the band had technical issues while making the album. During the recording of Bitch Slapped, a song about an ex girlfriend of Joel who he claims to this day was the devil in disguise, the tape motor burned out and to the band’s horror they realized this devil story was no myth. In the entire city they could find only one place that had a replacement part and could fix it so luckily they were able to press on and finish the album. The album featured many guests including Burd Phillips, Nick Vote, Courtney Kaiser, Charlie Beck, John Findlay, Scott Gould, Patrick Brothers, Beau Ansty, Ben Traub, Ben Black, and Mary Findlay.

Having not played in years and now playing with a full band The Shaloms had a disastrous debut show at Birdys. The show was rushed and sounded horrible, nobody was on the same page. The Shaloms would spend the next year moving around their lineup for their live shows before settling with Burd Phillips on bass and John Findlay on drums. Very few were able to witness these live shows because The Shaloms did so few of them due to not quite getting it right in the performance. The Shaloms played more often unannounced as an acoustic due at other shows than anything else.

The Shaloms followed up with their 2004 release of Contraire Mon Fraire in which they took a stab at recording in the digital world. While parts of the album were rushed in the wake of Joel heading back to the west coast, the songs were much more polished than any of their previous albums and the band was quite pleased with its outcome. The album features guests Burd Phillips and John Findlay.

The Shaloms write, record, and produce all their own music in their own basements. They tip their hats RIP to Cap’n Jack Koogim and FDQ. Today they are working out a few songs for an upcoming album. While they live far away technology has allowed them to keep close.

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