Richard Bock
Disq core members Isaac De Broux-Slone (left) and Raina Bock.
High school rock bands, generally speaking, don’t have long shelf lives. Usually, they’re meant to entertain at house parties and school-sanctioned battles of the bands, with set lists consisting mostly of covers. So it’s a tad unusual that a packed crowd at Mickey’s Tavern is waiting until well after midnight to hear a group of kids not even old enough to drink alcohol. But Disq is no ordinary high school band.
Formed in 2014 by lifelong friends Isaac De Broux-Slone and Raina Bock (who hadn’t yet entered high school when the band began), Disq is a dreamy power-pop act that sounds like a more psychedelic version of Pinkerton-era Weezer. Pinkerton was released in 1996, three years before De Broux-Slone, the elder of the two at 18 (Bock recently turned 17), was even born. But Disq is a band beyond their years, as evident in their restless career arc.
“We started out, we played Launchpad, and we did all right,” De Broux-Slone says. “They didn’t love us,” Bock interjects, laughing.
The band released a critically acclaimed full-length album in 2016.
However, it was only up from there. Several shows at the Frequency followed, spots opening for indie all-stars like Whitney, Hippo Campus and Quilt, and a gig at Summerfest — albeit right when the gates opened at noon. Disq released a debut album, Disq I, in the summer of 2016, with eight songs composed by De Broux-Slone and Bock and recorded by De Broux-Slone, a self-described “huge geek of recording” whose current hobby is re-creating Beatles albums by himself, in his basement. Disq I has received rave reviews, with Synesthesia’s Scott Powhatan Collins calling it “a rock and roll kaleidoscope.”
“We found that we work together really well as a team, and since we’ve known each other so long and so well, it’s pretty easy to write like that,” says De Broux-Slone.
In the past couple of years, the two polished their skills by playing with “adult bands” (VO5, Madgadders, Nowhere Band and Tarnished Halos) made up of musicians twice their age (De Broux-Slone’s mother and Bock’s father are both musicians).
De Broux-Slone and Bock, vocals/guitar and bass, respectively, have gone through a rotating cast of supporting musicians — currently Zoe Dennis and Evergreen Wildingway (guitar) and Braden Huffman (drums). And then there’s the distance: Bock lives in Viroqua, a two-hour drive away.
“It’s a bummer,” says Bock. “I’m used to it now, but we drive back and forth to Madison a couple times a week at least.”
Luckily, the pair has found a way to make it work. De Broux-Slone, in his senior year at Shabazz City High, has arranged his schedule into half-days, making it easier to focus on both Disq and school. And Bock has some flexibility, too. She attends Youth Initiative High School, which she describes as “a really funky, weird Waldorf school.”
“We’re planning on touring the first semester of next year, and they’re all like, ‘yeah, that’s fine! You can take a semester off, it’s all right.’ So that’s awesome,” she says.
In addition to planning the tour, Disq is also prepping for the recording of a second album at Rustbelt Studios, a Detroit institution that’s produced work by classic rock stars like Bob Seger and John Fogerty. They’ll be working with Bob Ebeling, a seasoned producer and engineer who’s worked with a host of artists ranging from Rufus Wainwright to Kid Rock. They’ll also be performing a sold-out show with Bad Bad Hats at Spring Green’s Shitty Barn on May 24, their debut at the iconic venue.
And as for that late-running Mickey’s set? De Broux-Slone, Bock and their bandmates took the stage shortly after 1 a.m. and promptly blew the roof off the place.
It may be a bit early to tell, but it looks like the kids are going to be alright.
