The "Cleavers" — Terry Tanger, Mark Pierret, Tom Lesions, and Ernie Alvarez

The XCleavers were in the forefront of an early wave of alternative music that came after the British Invasion. They took in many genres & sub-genres, and with ‘cover' material, believed there were no rules to bastardization ("Cleaverization"). With a variety of fans that referred to their music as Punk, New Wave, Alternative, Pop-Punk, Ska, Ska-Punk or Dance Punk, the Cleavers only had one rule in songwriting: you had to be able to dance to it, and challenged audiences accordingly. They never lost the belief that in order for it to be rock and roll, it had to be body music first. They understood well what Keith Richards meant when he said (apparently in a moment of lucidity) that rock and roll is music for the neck downwards. And the Cleavers did not shy away from any opportunity, including opening for other touring punk / new wave groups, and taking their influences from the B52's, Blondie, Elvis Costello, the Jam, Pretenders, Talking Heads, Comateens, Nona Hendryx, Brains, Waitresses, Joan Jett, Fleshtones, Berlin, Busboys, Romantics, Devo, Peter Case, Tailgators, and Charlie Sexton, among others. In 1981 they opened for U2, on St. Patrick's Day, in Madison, Wisconsin, while in 1984 they opened for the Police at the Milwaukee Auditorium. news archives...