“Unless you’ve happened upon one of the nine-month-old band’s first two under-publicized live outings, you’ve likely never heard Devils Teeth.”
That was us, Milwaukee Record, back in December 2016. We were introducing you to a new garage/surf-rock band formed by a group of Milwaukee music scene vets: Chuck Engel, Jon Hanusa, and Eric Arsnow. At the time, Devils Teeth (no apostrophe, mind you) had only a few shows and three lo-fi basement demos under their belts. An opening slot for Local H at Shank Hall was on the horizon. The group’s debut full-length, Suki Yaki Hot!, was still two years away.
“I don’t even care about expectations at this point. Frankly, I’m just excited to be playing music,” Engel told us in 2016. “I feel like every band I’ve ever been in, to a certain degree, has been a victim of overthinking. That’s something this band does not do.”
A lot has changed for Devils Teeth in the past decade—overthinking or no overthinking. The lineup has shifted and expanded, and now includes Engel, Hanusa, Jeff Brueggeman, and Caleb Westphal. (Wespthal, of course, has been writing a Friday fish fry column for Milwaukee Record since 2017.) The band’s spaghetti Western-inspired second album, La leggenda di Chong Li, was released in 2021; the excellent Key Of Dickie G—recorded in Detroit by Jim Diamond—followed in 2024. And yes, there was a socially distant COVID-19 lockdown video in 2020.
On Friday, November 6, Devils Teeth will celebrate their 10th anniversary with a show at X-Ray Arcade. The Leg Hounds, Fret Rattles, and Cone Earth will play in support. The show will double as a release party for a new Devils Teeth EP, a four-track instrumental collection called Surf Punch Vol. 1. (“Recorded during a tornado warning on August 18, 2026,” the liner notes explain.) One of the EP’s tracks, “Tsunami Six,” can be streamed now:
Ahead of Friday’s show, we asked the members of Devils Teeth to share some of their favorite memories from the past decade. A few themes quickly emerged: notable shows, hanging out, and the importance of eating together as a band.
Milwaukee Record: What are your favorite Devils Teeth memories from the past decade?
Chuck: I wasn’t trying to start a new band when Devils Teeth came together in 2016, but we hit the ground running. The support we’ve received from Milwaukee since the beginning has been unlike anything I’d experienced before.
We’ve been fortunate to play some incredible shows over the years, sharing bills with artists who’ve helped shape our sound: The Blind Shake, The 5,6,7,8’s, Dick Dale (twice), Man Or Astroman? (twice), Kid Congo, and more. That never gets old.
That said, my favorite moments with DT happen outside of shows and rehearsals, when we have time to just hang out and be present with each other. That was my favorite part of recording in Detroit in 2022 and the most rewarding part of playing Mile of Music in 2025. Getting dinner as a band before a show is a tradition I love—especially when we have a Friday show and can all get fish with Caleb.
Jon: There have been so many great shows with great bands for sure. The 2021 boat show in the thunderstorm. There was a great packed house in 2018 at The Cooperage playing with Whips and New Age Narcissism. The Octopi Brewing gig I can barely remember the end of thanks to free beer.
That said, I think my favorite moments in the band are during practice. It’s music “therapy” for us. Friends getting together, catching up on the week, telling stories, etc. There are also these playing moments that happen every so often at practice where I can feel our minds melding into one and we start improvising as a band with sublime ease. Like no matter what we do, we happen to be in sync with something we’re just making up off the top of our heads. It’s really fun to sit back and watch that while it happens.
Caleb: An initial favorite memory has to be how I got in the band. I joined because Jon had been reading my fish fry column and saw in my author bio that I was looking to get in a band. The bio ad worked! Eric reached out in September 2017 and I played my first show with the band in January 2018 at Riverwest Public House.
We’ve had the opportunity to open for some iconic artists over our run, with Dick Dale, Man Or Astro-man?, Kid Congo, and Daikaiju being a few of my favorites. I even got Dick Dale to sign the reed I used at the 2018 gig.
We played on Lake Michigan on the Vista King in 2019, 2021, and 2022. You remember hot vax summer? Pent up pandemic fatigue precipitated a rock & roll explosion on the August 2021 cruise. The boat was rockin’ so hard that it almost overturned! Well, the intense rain storm might have had something to do with it too. It was wild!
Recording in an old transmission garage outside of Detroit in 2022 is another core memory. The smell of automobile fluids still filled the air while we tracked 20 or so songs in three days with Jim Diamond, seven of which landed on The Key Of Dickie G. A stop at Detroit’s original Buddy’s Pizza was a great bonding experience (culinary bonding is an important component of being in Devils Teeth), and standing outside of the abandoned Grande Ballroom brought shivers of awe. (Another fantastic Michigan memory came about some four years later when Chuck tied up my busted muffler with some of Jon’s guitar strings.)
Jeff: I joined Devils Teeth in 2024 when Eric left. We met up for a beer at Black Husky, and after a few more beers, it was pretty much a done deal. And it was a really strong fit from the first rehearsal. But I was with DT from the very beginning. Their first show was at Circle-A and my band WORK headlined that show. What I remember about that show is how great Devils Teeth was from the jump. They were the first band I thought of to play when WORK had a reunion show at Circle-A back in 2023. When they asked me to be a part, it was a no-brainer.
I love playing with these guys because the music rules, and it’s a great group of dudes.
Milwaukee Record: What’s next?
Jon: What else is there to do but to try and keep this fun-train going? We’re very excited about the new album that should be coming out in 2027. More Milwaukee shows, more out of town shows, songwriting, snacks, naps, etc. We still love doing this thing, so we’ll keep doing it as long as we can.
Chuck: Expect a new full length record next year—it’s ready to go. The songs we’re writing now are starting to take us in some new directions. It’s exciting to hear our sound evolve, feel us click more as a band, and see where all that might lead.
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