This is the story of a band that had the potential to burst into the music stratosphere only to dissipate into oblivion. Those who actually remember Feces Species recall the band's explosive sound fueled by Casio keyboards. F.S. was the wind that carried the lonely and misunderstood, unleashing emotionally charged numbers about life's general crappiness that left few unaffected.

The Feces originated in Butte, Montana, in 1980, when half-sisters Eminenima (born Tiffany Runz) and Intestina (born Suzie Runz) began taking piano lessons through a juvenile delinquency prevention program. Showing a natural gift for music and sensitivity beyond their adolescent years, the girls were soon performing at family holidays and recitals under the name, "The Girls." Their cover of "You Light Up My Life" was a modest hit with audiences.

Music became their passion, playing any recital they could get into and busking on suburban street corners with used toy pianos. Eminenima sang lead vocals with Intestina backing her up. Smelling the potential of his daughters as a moneymaking gimmick, their father W.C. Runz gave up his plumbing business in order to manage the group. He entered "The Girls" in talent contests, took them to local fairs, set them up at livestock and rodeo shows, all in the hope that a slick record producer would discover them. Sadly, this would never happen.

One fateful day, when passing the restroom of their local high school, the sisters overheard a talented horn player practicing in one of the stalls. They asked Grand Master Flush (born Colleen Oscopy) to join the group and bring along her brass wind stylings. This helped "The Girls" break out of their normal piano standards rut. They covered Dixieland jazz and Captain and Tennille songs.

The talent show/county fair/livestock and rodeo show circuit began to consume and take its toll on the now teenage girls, who weren't placing in any of the contests. The public just wasn't appreciating the band's unique piano-horn sonic fusion. Then disaster struck at the Lewistown Chokecherry Festival. Intestina, nervous about performing in front of their largest audience to date, developed severe irritable bowel syndrome. Without going into too much detail, the show had to end abruptly. Intestina would never fully recover from the embarrassment, and "The Girls" would never be able to play again as "The Girls."

While on break from touring, the band started producing its own material. Eminenima led the charge, suggesting they do what other bands do: write songs about what they know. Feelings of inadequacy, alienation, misunderstanding from classmates, teachers, and strangers, intestinal fortitude or the lack thereof, pain and discomfort, all themes that would drive the band's lyrics. Grand Master Flush, having introduced the band to Dixieland jazz, brought classic rock into the mix. Finding the guitar too difficult to learn how to play, she discovered the unique string sound of the Zippy Zither could work as a substitute. The band also decided to change its name to reflect their new sound, new solidarity, and new mission to treat bodily functions as metaphors for life's troubles. "The Girls" became Sister Sludge.

The band got back into playing incendiary gigs in and around Montana. They also found another influence from the New Wave videos streaming on WTBS's video show Night Tracks. Eminenima, not having enough money to buy an electronic keyboard herself, began working at a Dairy Queen. There she met a soulmate in Bowelerie (born Jonna Flushing), an art school dropout now studying scatology at the local junior college. Bowlerie had never played a musical instrument but, "she had dyed blue hair, a biological knowledge of excrement, and was rich," Eminenima wrote in the band's autobiography, Making Crap: The Rise and Fall of Feces Species. She asked Bowelerie to join the group and foot the bill for a Casio keyboard. Bowlerie agreed to learn keybass and the trio became a quartet in the fall of 1985. The band embraced its new electronic sound, and with Bowelerie's urging for more metaphors, designed its infamous "brown look." The bandmembers changed their real names to stage names and renamed the band Feces Species.

The band's notoriety exploded. Record companies had yet to show interest, but W.C. Runz was not giving up on his dream. Finally, with enough material "to record an album's worth of material,"the band did something almost no band would have ever thought of doing at that time—put out an album on its own label. Innerectum Records was created. The self-titled debut album, Is This Shit, came out in the winter of 1985. From the moment critics heard the album, they knew it was a cut above other sounds—"pure Casio," said one critic. "Unlike anything I've ever heard before," said another. The album's fusion of Dixieland jazz mixed with New Wave electronic keyboards and rock and roll zither left many bewildered, but few would agree it was ahead of its time. The song that best encapsulates the sound and feel of the album is the power ballad, "Natural For Me,"

This feeling inside
has nowhere to hide.
It has to come out
in a matter of time.
It's hard to resist
when it so insists
on reminding me
once again it exists.
(chorus)
It's mo-o-o-ving through me,
It wants to come free.
I can't deny it no more,
It's natural for me.
Natural for me.
(keyboard solo)
No more suppressing
what needs addressing.
I've waited before
and I've learned my lesson.
I gotta get up
and release this stuff.
Nothing can stop me
I've had more than enough.
(Repeat chorus and keyboard solo)

Not surprisingly, the critical reaction had an effect on the record buyer. Is This Shit sold only 20 copies. W.C. had to take out a second mortgage on the trailer; building tensions in the band fueled by acrimony between Eminenima and Bowelerie prompted F.S. to break up for a few days. Eminenima worked on side projects with other musicians. Her reputation as a Casio keyboard player was becoming legendary, startling musicians with a mind-blowing 11-note hand span. Intestina was not as relieved. Still tender from the infamous Chokecherry Festival incident, she began a downward spiral of Pepto-Bismol-Ex-Lax cocktails.

The band came back with their second effort, Number 2, in 1987. It didn't fare much better than Is This Shit, but it reinforced the band's unique and ever-expanding noise. Grand Master Flush had now perfected the programming of an electronic drum beat. Bowelerie's skill on keybass was steadily improving. But there was still uncomfortable stress between bandmembers. Audiences and industry executives still did not know what to make of the band, so they left them alone.

As is usual with bands so imaginative and hard to define, they are more popular in foreign countries. When Number 2 came out, it was a smash in Luxembourg, with three hits, the booming rock anthem "Smells Like Teen Flatulence," the powerful love ballad, "My Fart Will Go On," and the psychedelic, mind-expanding classic, "Are You Relieved?" During their "De-Lux Tour," Intestina's addiction to antacids and laxatives came to a head. When she didn't appear for one of the shows, her bandmates reluctantly decided to discharge her from the band.

By the time the third and final album was released in 1989, the highly-innovative Brown Album, Feces Species had degenerated into almost a parody of its former self, with stage shows so over the top people wondered about the bandmembers' lifestyle and sanity. Performance artist Karen Finley became a huge influence. At one show, the band threw human fecal matter at the audience. The police came and arrested the band. "We didn't understand what the big stink was about," wrote Eminenima in the autobiography. Such hubris may have contributed to the band never getting a record contract. The Feces wanted it their way and their way only.

Since the band's breakup in 1990, the members have gone on to other creative endeavors. Intestina was diagnosed with lactose intolerance and after years of treatment, she was able to form her own band, The Suzie Runz Anal Explosion. Grand Master Flush became the hottest deejay in Butte, Montana. Bowelerie is a taxidermist in Portland, Oregon. Eminenima, after helping her father start up another plumbing business, has become somewhat of a recluse in the mountains of Montana. In 1991, she published the band's autobiography to address the issues concerning the band's choices and public persona.

The band's attempt to reunite at the 1995 Butte Livestock and Rodeo Show didn't make much of a splash. With New Wave becoming a thing of the past, grunge rock taking over the airwaves, and Dixieland jazz never gaining much popularity with the kids, the Feces decided to call it a day. Unfortunately, the band's peculiar music overshadowed their universal message. "Life is all about crap: crappy feelings, crappy relationships, crappy disappointments, crappy decisions. We stood up for those who had basically flushed their lives down the toilet. Our music is their relief."