Hepcat Dilemma formed as Spring started in 1992. Bob Loiselle had spent the previous nine years playing bass for legendary Pittsburgh art-punks Special Ed, releasing five critically acclaimed albums and cassettes, but had grown weary of the bands stagnation after plans for their ambitious “His Touch” rock opera had fallen through. With Sped’s future uncertain and a strong desire to continue playing he started playing music with his longtime friend (and Special Ed lighting director) Chuck McPherson. After the aborted Rich’s Army project, they finally started a new and powerful trio with Bob switching to guitar and vocals, Chuck picking up the bass and newcomer Brett Amond grabbing the drum throne. They dubbed the new band Hepcat Dilemma and started to assemble a wealth of strong new original material. This line-up rehearsed for nearly a year, recording the still unreleased “Frame Off Mind” before Brett unfortunately had to leave the band on the eve of their debut performance.
He was replaced by Byron Glatz who had agreed to fill in for the band’s debut performance and ended up staying for ten years. Byron had studied percussion in California and had played on Detriment’s self-titled debut and his strong, precise drumming consolidated the Hepcat sound. The band soon began playing frequently in the Pittsburgh area and their debut “The Bongs Are Flying” was released in early 1994 followed by the critically acclaimed “Erutangis” a year later.
In the Summer of 1996, the drums were augmented with the addition of long-time band friend and general lunatic E Hood. The new two-drummer lineup created a spectacle of noise and took their performances to a higher ground. After witnessing the band in full flight in the fall of 1996, Bob’s former cohort in Special Ed, Mark Chute joined the band on “full frontal guitar”. This five-piece line-up could be brilliant but never reached their full potential. Despite several attempts this line-up never completed a proposed new album.
In early 2000 Bob suffered a shoulder injury which sidelined him for half a year. When the band finally reconvened Mark had drifted away, and they were back to the double drum four-piece. It was around this time that Byron and Bob started to moonlight when Aaron Brown (ex-Elias Khrone) invited them to play in his new band Voxius. With Bob switching to bass they recorded “Psyclotomis Rex” which was released in 2001.
Inspired by working in the studio with Voxius, Bob began writing the mini-concept album “Overend” which was released in September 2002. “Overend” was Hepcat’s most definitive statement to date and was well received. Justin Hopper of the Pittsburgh City Paper wrote “’Overend’ sounds as though singer-songwriter guitarist Bob Loiselle (of Special Ed way back when), drummers E Hood and Byron Glatz and bassist Chuck McPherson have been in a cave for 25 years, missing all that’s happened in guitar rock music, yet developed it all in a bizarre parallel world.” But time had taken its toll on the band and after a series of shows to promote the new album Byron left the band in the summer of 2003 and all Hepcat activities ground to a halt.
When Chuck suddenly passed away in 2005 it looked like the final chapter of the Hepcat Dilemma saga had been written. Byron joined Didi Mau which performed regularly and recorded an album that has still yet to see the light of day while Bob enjoyed a temporary retirement. In 2009 Byron called Bob and suggested a new group that would include his Didi Mau cohort Chris Colpo (ex-Salena Catalina) on bass and Melissa Ippolito on vocals. This became Junk Fingers who released their debut “You can’t drink All Day Unless You Start in the Morning” in 2010.
In early 2012 E wanted to play Hepcat Dilemma music again and suggested to Bob that they reunite for a show with Chris on bass. The new line up of E, Chris and Bob immediately gelled into a special powerful unit and what was originally intended as a one-off performance turned into the second coming of Hepcat Dilemma. The band has been performing regularly since then, soon introducing new material into their set and now in 2019 is releasing an amazing new album “Art Imitates Life”.