Joe Oestreich is a professor of English at Coastal Carolina University. He has published essays in magazines such as Esquire and Sports Illustrated and in the literary journals Ninth Letter and Fourth Genre. Several of his essays have been shortlisted for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Best American Essays series. Oestreich's memoir about Watershed, entitled Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll, was released by Lyons Press in June 2012.
Colin Gawel Owns Colin's Coffee in Upper Arlington, OH and founded the website Pencilstorm.com. He also performs and releases music as both a solo artist and with The League Bowlers. His band, Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? disbanded when Cheap Trick got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Rick Kinsinger previously played in Ohio-based bands Pfifer and The Blasphemy Saints. He has also played in Colin Gawel & the Lonely Bones and currently plays in The League Bowlers. He is an engineer who has recorded tracks for the Dead Schembechlers, Watershed, Colin Gawel and The League Bowlers.
Herb Schupp is an original member of the band and was friends with Oestreich and Gawel in high school. He also plays in The League Bowlers and is known for his love of spicy food.
Former members:
Mark "Poochie" Borror was a touring guitarist and still plays in the power pop band Twin Cam.
Joe Peppercorn is a classically trained pianist and a bartender in Columbus. Aside from Watershed, he is locally known for performing the entire Beatles catalog in single 13-hour sessions.He also writes and performs with The Whiles.
Dave Masica played drums with the band from 1998 - 2013 before back problems led to his retirement from performing.
History
The group formed in 1987 when the four founding members were still teenagers. After being signed to Epic Records in the mid-1990s, they were dropped by the label in favor of Silverchair. In 1998, Watershed toured with controversial shock-rap duo Insane Clown Posse, with Gawel saying that "It's a really harsh crowd, but they like us because we're rock and roll survivors." A lyric from Watershed's song "Black Concert T-Shirt" provides the title for Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin's novel Break the Skin. The band also makes an appearance in the book itself. In 2012, Oestreich released Hitless Wonder, a memoir about his years in Watershed. Although the band had largely faded from popularity, the book received national media attention. The band released a single in 2016 featuring two new songs produced by Tim Patalan. As of this time, original drummer Herb Schupp had rejoined the band and longtime collaborator Rick Kinsinger replaced Joe Peppercorn, who was involved in his own band. In August 2019, the Watershed Hullabaloo featured the band performing shows on three consecutive days in their hometown of Columbus,Ohio. All the shows sold out and the band played 74 different original songs over the three day period. In January 2020 they began working on a new EP with producer Tim Patalan with plans for a summer 2020 release.
Dead Schembechlers
In 2004, two of the original Watershed members, Gawel and Oestreich, joined with vocalist Lou Brutus and Twin Cam guitarist Mike Sammons on drums to form the punk band Dead Schembechlers based on the Ohio State-Michigan football game and rivalry. The side project's name, a play on the Dead Kennedys, was a lighthearted jab at former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, who upon hearing about the band name was reportedly quite amused. The four members go by the pseudonyms of Bo Vicious, Bo Biafra, Bo Scabies, and Bo Thunders. The group quickly gained more popularity than Watershed itself. Following Schembechler's passing on November 17, 2006, the Dead Schembechlers changed their name to the "Bastard Sons of Woody", a reference to former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes. The band chose to respect their team's former opponent rather than becoming infamous, with Oestreich stating: "If we were a legit, safety-pin-in-the-ear punk band, we would have left the sign and issued a statement saying, We're glad the bastard croaked, and we sincerely hope crows are eating his eyes this very minute. But we're hot-dog-and-a-ball-game guys. With wives and kids and mortgages. Our fans are football fans, not punk rockers." The band plays many anti-Wolverine songs to the tune ofrock "legends" such as Kiss and The Ramones. A long-running joke on the official Dead Schembechlers website claims they originally wrote the tunes and other bands just stole the riffs. The band 'claims' to have released numerous singles and albums throughout the years, but in reality they only released two albums. In 2004 the album Rocket to Ann Arbor was released and soon after re-released as Wolverine Destroyer with a new track and alternate versions of existing songs. The band "reunited" under the Dead Schembechlers name in 2008, and released a new EP, entitled "Rodriguez to Ruin," which poked fun at Wolverines head football coachRich Rodriguez. Singles from the new release included "Rodriguez is a Weasel" ; and "I'm So Bored with the SEC." The band played two live concerts in 2008; their Cleveland show was their first to be scheduled outside of Columbus.
