Cafe Graffiti is an American post-punk band from San Diego, California.
They were active from 1991 to 1993.

In 1990, Kaitlyn Russi (rhythm guitar) and Eric Roggenstroh (bass) had seen their band, Deja Moo, completely dissolve in front of them due to serious issues of alchohol abuse, drug addiction, and mental health problems on the part of other band members.

In 1991, Tony Reed placed an ad looking for a band in search of a lead singer. The only response came from Russi. Russi introduced Reed to Roggenstroh and the three hit it off and began writing socially conscious post-punk. They filled out their lineup with Kevin Pomerlaugh on drums. On November 2nd, 1991 the band played their first gig as November 2, but soon changed their name to Café graffiti after a graphic project Russi was designing. At about that same time, Pomerlaugh left the band with no notice. After several auditions, the three decided on John Wechner to be their drummer and added Achim Dangerfield to play lead guitar.

The sound of Café Graffiti can be described as post-punk, although occasionally the band would venture off into blues, rockabilly, and funk. One of the trademarks of the bands sound was Roggenstrohs mammoth basslines. Another defining feature was Reeds elastic voice which changed with the feel of each song.

Café Graffiti recorded an albums worth of material, but had no releases before their breakup in 1993 when Dangerfield and Roggenstroh left after Wechners sudden disappearance. After many attempts to re-form the project, Reed and Russi eventually went their separate ways.

Soon after, Reed began working on electronic dance music projects, Russi moved to Boston, MA, and Roggenstroh followed another band to Washington D.C.. Dangerfield and Wechner were never seen again.

In late 2001, Reed culled the bands basement tapes and released The Fall of the American Empire through MP3.coms Digital Automatic Music label. The album sold poorly. In late 2002, the album was re-released through Cafepress.com with two bonus tracks (Covers of Johnny Cash's, Ring of Fire and The Velvet Underground's, Sweet Jane).

There are no plans for the bands further reformation.

External links

Cafe Graffiti Page on Tony Reeds official site

Cafe Graffiti Album page on Cafepress.com.