On paper, Dillinger Four doesn’t make a lick of sense. They’re a pop-punk band, but they look down on the genre, or at least that scene, with outright disdain. Their songs are structured like 80s straight-edge hardcore anthems, but the band is generally too drunk to play them. Their lyrics, which focus on socioeconomic inequities, are propped up by references to deceased Chicago mayors and Nelson Algren, but they’re just as quick to devolve into their take on regional TV jingles , too. If they only abandon a couple songs midway through their live shows, that’s considered a success. They rarely tour, much less play outside of the Midwest; and, if they had their druthers, they’d probably never leave Minneapolis ever again. In many ways, Dillinger Four should have been a local curiosity and nothing more. But their debut album, 1998’s Midwestern Songs of the Americas, proved they were much more important than they may have let on.

Formed by bassist-vocalist Patrick Costello and guitarist-vocalist Erik Funk after the break-up of their previous band, Angerhouse, Dillinger Four started once they decamped from the northern Chicago suburb of Evanston to Minneapolis. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul had a rich punk tradition, stretching back to the late 70s with bands like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü, and, in the 90s, it became a hotbed for crust punk thanks to the local label Profane Existence. When Costello and Funk landed there in 1994, they linked up with drummer Lane Pederson and guitarist Sloan Lorsung, wasting little time writing their first batch of songs. They’d release their debut seven-inch a year later and, by then, Lorsung had already left, making room for Billy Morrisette to enter as the band’s second guitarist and, along with Funk and Costello, their third vocalist.

Before they even had an album out, Dillinger Four was already an outlier, both in Minneapolis and in the larger punk landscape. Though they had the trappings of a pop-punk band, they eschewed the squeaky clean production that was all the rage and excised all the saccharine subject matter. They weren’t humorless, as Funk claimed that he and Costello started Dillinger Four because they wanted to do “a band that was fun,” and their live shows were proof of that. Their performances would function like town hall meetings, with Costello filibustering for minutes on end, taking his shirt off, and, on at least one occasion, having audience members rub lotion on his bare ass as he played.

After four years’ worth of singles, compilation appearances, and unpredictable live shows, Dillinger Four signed to Hopeless Records and released their first full-length album on June 23, 1998. Opening with a sample from an old test record, the kind people used to balance their speakers in the 60s, “O.K.F.M.D.O.A.” cemented the band’s sideways approach to punk. While plenty of punk bands were using samples, they were usually recognizable quotes from movies and TV shows. But Dillinger Four opted for obscurities. They used bargain bin oddities to give Midwestern Songs a patchwork, absurdist flow.