Engine 88 released three albums and a handful of 7 inch singles throughout the 1990s. The band featured Tom Barnes of the notable college rock band Sordid Humor as lead singer, Damon Wood of Smoking Section on guitar, Eric Knight on bass and Dave Hawkins on the drums. Their first two releases, two 7 inch singles, Funny Car and Twenty were put out independently on their own label, Shut Up and Drive in 1993 and 1994, respectively. In 1995, their first full length LP, Clean Your Room was released on Caroline Records, defining their characteristic sound of driving guitars and rhythms counter-acted with introspective and often abstract lyrics. 1997's Snowman followed, to much critical acclaim. On July 2, 1997, Counting Crows kicked off a co-headlining tour with The Wallflowers that continued through September. This tour included opening acts by Bettie Serveert, Engine 88, Gigolo Aunts, and That Dog, with each opening band touring for a three-week stretch. While touring with Counting Crows, The Wallflowers were also playing their own headlining dates when the Counting Crows tour was on break. In 1998 the group disbanded and their final full-length, Flies and Death n' Stuff was released posthumously in 1998 on Wingnut Records. At the prompting of Jawbreaker, Engine 88 agreed to reunite for an appearance at Chicago's Riot Fest on Sept 17, 2017.
Where are they now?
Singer Tom Barnes released a CD entitled Three Day Ditties, which abandoned the louder rock sound of Engine 88, in favor of a more soft rock sound similar to that of his former project, Sordid Humor. His songs have gained a cult following and have been covered live by the band Counting Crows. Guitarist Damon Wood is now a Software Engineer at Pandora performing in a Pretenderstribute band, Message of Love, and in an R&B cover band, Curtis Bumpy, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bassist Eric Knight works at UC Berkeley and trains and coaches martial arts at . Engine 88 played a "reunion" show commemorating the release of Peter Ellenby's book, Every Day is Saturday at the in San Francisco on Friday, Oct 27 2006. Drummer, Dave Hawkins, opened a popular movie rental store, Lost Weekend Video, in San Francisco, with Christy Colcord who previously booked European tours for many US punk bands including Green Day and Adam Pfahler of Jawbreaker.
