Winnebago Deal

Winnebago Deal are a rock music band from Oxford, United Kingdom. They started life in the late 1990s at Bartholomew School in Eynsham, with Ben Perrier (vocals, guitar) and Ben Thomas (then on guitar) writing songs then recruiting a drummer and bass player through an ad. They played their first gig in early 1999 and fired the bass player a few months later, with Ben Thomas switching from guitar to bass. By the summer of 2000, Perrier and Thomas' dissatisfaction with their drummer led to his departure, with Thomas switching from bass to drums so the band could continue as a two-piece. Winnebago Deal now consists of two Bens, Ben Perrier (vocals, guitar) and Ben Thomas (drums).

Winnebago Deal generated strong support from local youth center gigs and many appearances at Oxford's Zodiac club, eventually supporting Fugazi at London's Forum; this led to their first record, the Plata O Plomo EP in 2003. They were nominated for the Kerrang Award's 'Best British Newcomer' that year. Soon after, the band signed a recording contract with Double Dragon Music, and produced their debut album Dead Gone with Jack Endino, producer of the first Nirvana album Bleach. Dead Gone was released in September 2004. Plata O Plomo was reissued in Australia later that year, with an expanded track listing.

The "two Bens" then went on to play as Mondo Generator with Nick Oliveri, former Queens of the Stone Age bassist-vocalist. As well as playing Mondo Generator gigs, they still toured as Winnebago Deal and even supported Mondo Generator, earning them the moniker "Winnebago Generator" from fans. After recording tracks at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 for the next Mondo Generator album with producer Nick Raskulinecz, it was announced in July 2006 that they had left the band for "undisclosed reasons".

In that same month they released their second full-length album Flight Of The Raven, with the band again choosing to record with producer Jack Endino. The album features guest appearances from other artists including band partner Nick Oliveri, Endino, Paul Morrill and Edward "Raven" Heaton from the band Sicarios, and Rusty Needles of Oxford band Deguello, and was cited as the sixth best album in 2006 by Kerrang! writer Raziq Rauf. In 2007 the Bens formed a new band called The Dresdens with their comrade Jack Goldstein of Oxford band Gunnbunny.

Winnebago Deal are currently as of March 2009 working on songs for their third full-length album.

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