Musical Suicide was formed in the late summer of 1983 in Cincinnati.

The original forming members were:

Bass - Jakki Repellant, formerly of the Repellants of Bloomington, IN

Vocals - Bill Igerent, formerly of the U.S. Army

Guitar - Ben Shipman, formerly of the Defekts of Oxford, IN

Drums - Paul Grisar, formerly of a music store where we put up an ad for a drummer

Our main hang out and gig outlet was the Jockey Club in Newport, KY. We played our first show there three weeks after forming. We were one of the opening bands for the Circle Jerks. We had a 10 minute set of songs that we played twice. We didn't even have a name for the band at the time and at the last minute we said we were The Cajuns. After our set we came off stage and concurred we had just committed musical suicide and then decided that would be a perfect name for the band.

With practice and songwriting we got much better and tighter and eventually we successfully opened many a show at the JC including ones for Black Flag, the Circle Jerks (twice) and others. Because of Jakki's contacts in Bloomington and Ben's contacts in West Lafayette we also played quite a few gigs in Indiana. We also branched out to Dayton, Columbus and Lexington.

In the spring of 1984 we put out an album called Little Fish in the Big Sea, sporting a cover photo of fish heads that our "official" photographer, Jan Gerber had taken. We set up a summer tour and traveled across the country, from Portland, Maine to Los Angeles, CA. After the tour I had a bit of a mental breakdown induced by alcohol abuse and quit the band and made a clean break from the whole scene. Musical Suicide went on with at least two different vocalists. I'm not sure when the band officially broke up.

There are many stories that could fill a book, and maybe one day will, about this year of living dangerously. At last count three members of the original band are still kicking around. Sadly, Ben Shipman died in May of 2007 from cancer. He was living in California and made custom surfboards. At last report Jakki was living in Cincinnati with her husband and daughter where, after the band she became a kick-ass ice hockey player which she eventually had to give up due to injuries. Paul was last reported to be working somewhere in California refurbishing classic cars. Bill is living in Philadelphia with his wife and three kids and sits in front of a computer monitor too much.

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