Flame Shark was born in 2004 when singer & songwriter Justin Jahnke quit grad school in Baton Rouge, packed his bags and headed North to the cold tundras of Madison, WI. Shortly after the move, Justin set out on a search for eager musicians. He soon found himself talking with Bassist & singer/songwriter Mike “Goldenwings” Meske. Mike was living in Milwaukee at the time teaching guitar lessons but had been toying with the idea of immersing himself in a fully functioning dedicated band. Justin and Mike decided the band would be based around honest, original, solid, melodic songwriting treading the dangerous ground between art and pop. While working at a record store in Madison Justin met up with Keyboardist Rusty “Lee” Larue. Rusty responded to Justin’s add in the onion which read something like this, “Hammond Organ, Fender Rhodes enthusiasts interested in touring the world in a van need apply”. Rusty was the only one to apply to that add and sure enough 6 months later he found himself touring across the country in a big white van.

Flame Shark’s first album “Midnight On Pearl Beach” (2005) paved the way for three tours and and opened the door for two EP’s to follow, “Release This You Bloodsuckers” (2005) and “Vireo” (2007). In the Fall of 2008 Flame Shark made the move from Madison to Chicago hoping to find more musicians and take full advantage of the flourishing music scene. The band recently returned from Downtown New Orleans where they recorded 9 songs all live at Piety Street Studios. The new album is tentatively titled “Raw Flowers” and will hopefully be ready for release late spring/ early summer of 2009. In the meantime they can be found in their Ukrainian Village house rehearsing and scheming new ideas for the next live show.

Session Tracklist
1. Name Of The Game
2. Common And Line
3. Freedom Is A State Of Mind
4. Deny Pt. III
5. A Fossil

Hometown
Chicago, IL

Visit the band’s website