| 50's 60's 70's | Anne Eickelberg, Brian Hageman, and Mark Davies grow up in Iowa. Paul Bergmann grows up in California. Hugh Swarts grows up in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Iowa. Jay Paget grows up in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| Early to mid 80's | Anne, Brian, Hugh, Mark and Paul play in various bands in Iowa City, including Horny Genius, Total Fools, and Pink Gravy. Jay settles in San Francisco and plays guitar in Glorious Din. Hugh relocates to Washington DC. |
| 1986 | Anne, Brian and Mark move to San Francisco area and start band. Live together crammed into one bedroom apartment in El Cerrito. Spend time drinking generic burgundy, listening to two big band radio stations at the same time, and writing songs. Irate neighbor forces rehearsals out of garage and into Gilman Street Project. |
| 1987 | Move to rambling house in Oakland next to freeway overpass. Practice in the house. Paul moves to Bay Area and joins as drummer. Hugh moves to Oakland and joins band. Paul moves into the Oakland house, beginning a three-year stretch in which all five members live together and practice in the same house. Hugh, Brian and Mark get drunk and rant about a group of hick armchair philosophers called the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. Band adopts the name in last minute effort to name themselves before first show. "We'll come up with something better later." Play first show, at the Gilman Street Project. |
| 1988 | Band befriends Jay, who plays with World of Pooh and Archipelago Brewing Company. Begin long recording relationship with Greg Freeman. Put out first cassette, Wormed By Leonard. 10-day tour of the Northwest in the fall. |
| 1989 | Release first album, Tangle, on own label, Thwart Productions. Dismal two-week tour of the Southwest. |
| 1990 | Paul leaves band due to family commitments. Jay joins as drummer upon collapse of World of Pooh. First nationwide tour in summer. Sign with Matador Records in New York. Release 2x4's single on Nuf Sed. Also release The Natural Finger single on Ajax. |
| 1991 | Release Lovelyville on Matador. Six-week U. S. tour in summer, followed by a four-week tour in the fall. Split single on Nuf Sed of TFUL282 and Sun City Girls covering Caroliner songs. |
| 1992 | Release double album, Mother of All Saints, on Matador. Tour U. S. in fall with Sun City Girls. |
| 1993 | Take most of year off. Move rehearsals to junkie squat on Turk Street in San Francisco. Release Admonishing the Bishops EP on Matador. Release Where's Officer Tuba EP on Hemiola in the UK. |
| 1994 | Release Funeral Pudding EP on Brinkman in Europe and on Ajax in the U.S. Month-long tour of Europe in February. Release Strangers From the Universe on Matador. Leave Turk Street studio. Two-month tour of U. S. in fall. CD re-release of Tangle on Scratch. |
| 1995 | Arena tour in spring as support act for the group Live. Two more U. S. tours, in summer and fall. Release "sampler" CD in Japan, on the Japan Overseas label. Release Porcelain Entertainments CD, a collection of live and home recorded tracks, on Normal label in Germany. CD/LP re-release of Wormed By Leonard on Thwart. Also release single "Everyday" on Amarillo. | 1996 | Release I Hope It Lands, on the Communion label. After tour of U. S. in spring, band decides to abandon "life on the road". Fall sees the beginning of extremely drawn-out recording process of another album. Release The Kids Are in the Mud single on Japan Overseas. |
| 1997 | Three short weekend tours to Texas and Louisiana, Memphis, and New York. |
| 1998 | Recording resumes. One weekend trip to Ohio. |
| 1999 | Mixing. Two shows in December. |
| 2000 | Weekend in Chicago. Compilation track. Jay moves to Boston. |
| 2001 | Release of 'Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles Present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche'. |