Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ton Bundle - Inbetween and Afterward
1992

Ton Bundle formed at Wheaton college in Illinois. Led by Rob Bell, they released a cassette in 1992 called "Taking My Donkey to Town." A friend made me a dub of the tape in high school and I actually listened to it fairly often. I forgot about the band a few years later, but rediscovered the tape when I was researching tracks for my Tiny Idols comps. I decided to see if I could find the band, and it turned out that Bell is now a hugely popular pastor at Mars Hill church. I left several messages with Bell's secretary, but she seemed dubious about my intentions and probably never even passed on the message. I never heard back from Bell.

Upon relistening to the tape, it does in fact have some Christian themes, if not overtly so. In hindsight I also now remember that the friend who gave me the tape was raised in a devoutly Christian home. A coincidence? Probably not.

In my research I discovered that Ton Bundle attracted a fairly devoted following at the time (I guess some were born to lead, huh?). Many of the old fans were dying to hear tracks, so I thought I'd upload my favorite from the cassette.