The Vertebrats gained notoriety due to their energetic live performances, on-stage chemistry, numerous original compositions, a fiercely loyal local fan base, and, as time went on, other bands covering their songs.

As a result, “Left in the Dark” was covered later by The Replacements, Uncle Tupelo, The Screaming Tribesmen (from Australia), and Courtney Love (her recording of it has not been officially released, but The Vertebrats have a copy of it), among others.

The CU FM radio station WPGU (107.1 MHz) honors listeners' requests for Vertebrat recordings such as "Left in the Dark" to this day.

The four members of the band's original stable lineup (from November 1979 onward) were Roy Axford Jr., Matt Brandabur, Kenny Draznik, and Jim Wald.

With the help of Wells, Axford started disc jockeying at WPGU with a weekly punk rock hour called The Roy Bad Show.

Spurred on by the success of the July 4 performance, the band started practicing in earnest in the basement of the Brandabur family residence at 1206 S. Elm Blvd.

While the band was setting up for the planned outdoor event in Springer's driveway, the Champaign Police Department arrived as soon as the amps were plugged in and put a stop to it for lack of a permit.

Thus began a string of raucous parties at Caucus Studios featuring the Vertebrats and other fledgling CU bands of the summer and fall of 1979.

In order to have a place to practice over which the band could exercise greater control, Axford and Draznik rented a house on N. Lincoln Ave. in Urbana in August 1979.

), the Vertebrats forged themselves into a tighter band in the house on N. Lincoln Ave. During the fall of 1979, Axford finished his MS thesis in electrical engineering at the kitchen table while Draznik penned the future classics “Diamonds in the Rough”, “Left in the Dark”, and "Jackie's Gone".

The band's song “Robbery” was also written in that house, starting out as a jam session, with the lyrics inspired by an actual burglary perpetrated there by a group of minors, one of who was chased down and apprehended by Axford and Draznik after catching them in the act upon returning home early one evening.

As the weather grew colder in late 1979, the Vertebrats were polishing songs that would help make them CU's most popular band by the summer of 1980.

The Vertebrats were booked to play a December 6, 1979 show at the Channing-Murray Foundation, a Unitarian Universalist meeting hall on the U. of I. campus, opening for a Springfield band called Food and Money.

After seeing the Vertebrats perform, Carrico passionately convinced the band that he should be their manager and set about getting them a booking at Mabel's, a large, upstairs nightclub at 613 E. Green Street in the “campustown” section of Champaign.

Mabel's had recently started booking rock and roll bands (e.g., Kool Ray and the Polaroids) in addition to the jazz and R&B groups that were their sole initial offerings.

At that time (early 1980), Mabel's was emerging as a fresh alternative to the more established CU rock and roll clubs such as the venerable yet sticky-floored Red Lion Inn.

Carrico correctly sensed that the Vertebrats, with their rather unusual sound (for CU at the time), would be better able to break new ground in a club with little prior rock and roll history.

Armed with a Vertebrat demo tape and a won’t-take-no-for-an-answer sense of determination, Carrico obtained the band their first nightclub (and first paying) booking.

On Sunday night, March 16, 1980, the Vertebrats debuted at Mabel's to a crowd of approximately 100, which included many Caucus Studios regulars and some bewildered stragglers.

Over the next two-and-a-half years, the Vertebrats were a mainstay at Mabel's, regularly drawing crowds in excess of the fire marshal's limit (about 450 persons).

The Vertebrats also opened for the Ramones at the University of Illinois Auditorium and the progressive rock band Spirit at the nightclub Tuts in Chicago.

Rubel currently operates Pogo Studio, and has recorded a vast array of artists, including Champaign's Hum, Alison Krauss, and Poster Children.

The original release of A Thousand Day Dream is prized by collectors for its egregious production error on "Toys", which slowed the song's tempo and lowered its pitch.

The remastered re-release of A Thousand Day Dream on Parasol's Reaction label is sought after by Vertebrats fans for correcting this version of "Toys" to the original tempo and pitch.

The re-release corrects this as well, so that Jim Wald's head is in between "The" and "Vertebrats" as originally intended by Ken Draznik, who designed the cover art.

Outside of the Champaign-Urbana area they only played in Chicago (including such nightclubs as Schuba's and Tuts, where they opened for Spirit), Indianapolis (at Crazy Al's), Carbondale, Rantoul (at the Chanute AFB Enlisted Men's Club - The Pit and The Ping), Bloomington-Normal, and Minneapolis (at the 7th Street Entry).

The original members of The Vertebrats (Axford, Brandabur, Draznik, and Wald) last performed together on Saturday, July 17, 2010 in Chicago, IL at a private rooftop party.