Mike Bonner

The Hated was an Annapolis, Maryland emo band from 1984 to 1989. The original members were Mike Bonner, Erik Fisher, Daniel Littleton, and Colin Meeder. The Hated are known as one of the earliest emo bands. After an early start as a parody of some of the DC hardcore scene's more rockist tendencies, the band's music quickly became more serious, more musically complicated than that of many of their contemporaries and followers, including melodic basslines, vocal harmonies and guitar playing (and tunings) borrowed from folk music, and drumming often more reminiscent of Keith Moon of the Who than most punk and post-punk drumming. The lyrics were complicated as well, occasionally containing biblical allusions or phrases in French and German. The original line-up recorded lasted until the fall of 1985, when Bonner was replaced by Kenny Hill of the Spastic Rats and Meeder was replaced by John Irvine. This version of the group recorded two of the Hated's best known works, the "Like the Days" EP and the sessions that were later released as the "What Was Behind" LP (this LP release has since been disowned by the band, as it was mastered at the wrong speed). Irvine left the band around the beginning of 1987; he was replaced first by Erik Fisher's brother Jason and then by Colin Meeder, who re-joined in early 1988. After the dissolution of the Hated, Littleton and Meeder went on to form Three Shades of Dirty and were members of the band Slack with Jenny Toomey. Littleton was later a member of Liquorice with Toomey and appeared on Lisa Loeb's Tails. Littleton is currently a member of Ida. The Hated's works are currently all out-of-print. A comprehensive compilation is said to be forthcoming from Troubleman Unlimited; this has, however, been delayed for several years.