In the months to follow, students Andy Ortmann, David Forquer, and Ryan Kohler would create a series of loud, defiant home recordings despite limited musical expertise and primitive technological resources. Following Kohler's 2003 exit, Ortmann and Forquer continued as a duo, making their public debut on Halloween. Forquer relocated to Minneapolis the following year, with Ortmann remaining the sole constant member amid a series of subsequent personnel changes. Upon graduating in 1995, he formed his own record label, Nihilist, and a year later released Panicsville's official debut, Four Notes in Search of a Tune, created by destroying piles of assorted records and hot-gluing the scattered remains into LP form. Ortmann moved to Austin, TX, in 1996 and there began work on the first Panicsville CD, Floccinaucinihilipification, a collaboration with math rock unit Laddio Bolocko housed between sheets of plexiglass. For the follow-up, 1997's The Last Compulsory Exercise, Ortmann created packaging consisting of 500 hand-engraved copies in sharp-edged sheets of galvanized steel. At this same time he began honing his confrontational live presence -- at various performances, Ortmann reportedly microwaved shark meat on-stage, threw plastic Easter eggs filled with rotten food and live insects into the crowd, and even punched Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna in the face. He settled in Chicago in early 1999 shortly after completing Panicsville's Evil, and in 2001 recruited roommate Jeremy Fisher to join the project's ranks. Let the Excuses Begin!, a ten-LP set packaged in a wood-and-steel box, followed in 2002, and in addition to a number of split singles, in 2003 the duo also released the full-lengths Imperfection of the Organism and Sterile. Perverse followed a year later. ~ Jason Ankeny