Dow Jones and the Industrials formed in West Lafayette in 1979 as Purdue students.  The band became a popular party band on campus as well as in a handful of punk/new wave venues in Indianapolis and Bloomington.  Gulcher Records issued its first LP in 1980, Hoosier Hysteria, featuring Dow on one side and Bloomington’s Gizmos on the other; the LP sold well and helped fuel the nascent Indiana punk and new wave scene. Dow Jones’ sound was characterized by melodic punk infused with Garton’s adventurous synth and keyboard work.  Garton had previously played in Vindication, a high school progressive rock band in Columbus.

The 1981 Gulcher compilation Red Snerts featured a new track, “Ladies With Appliances”.  Garton joined with Dave Fulton, Rick Wilkerson and Steve Grigdesby to form the Hardly Music label, which issued a Dow Jones EP in early 1981.  

By this time, the band was coming apart.  Garton and Clark had departed; Clark was replaced by Jenny Sweany from the Skunts on bass.  The band continued to play live for a short time, but disbanded in 1981.  Horn moved to Arizona and launched a new minimal/synth/wave band, Tone Set with Galen Herod, releasing an LP and  cassettes, including two under his name.  Garton joined the second incarnation of the Last Four Digits, known as Last Four (5) Digits.  North moved to San Francisco and had a storied career as a percussion innovator and visual artist.  North passed away in 2003, just before the band played tribute shows in his honor, both in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, with Lon Paul Ellrich on drums.  There have been a couple of other reunion attempts, including one in the mid 2010’s.  Horn continues to record and work on his archive; the Vinyl-On-Demand label issued a 5 LP Tone Set Box in 2016.  Garton left Indianapolis in the mid 1980’s and has served as Director of the Electronic Music Center at Columbia University.  He continues to work in electronic music and computer generated music.

The legend of Dow Jones’ music grew over time, and the scarcity of contemporaneous vinyl helped fuel interest.  Most of the picture sleeves and some vinyl for the Hardly Music EP were destroyed in a basement flood in the late 1980’s, while the limited pressing of Hoosier Hysteria was highly sought.  A long-hoped for retrospective compilation was finally delivered in 2016 by Indianapolis label Family Vineyard, which released a double LP/CD entitled Can’t Stand The Midwest 1979-81; early copies included a DVD  originally shot at Third Base in black and white by videographer Randy Schwartz.  Family Vineyard also reissued a remastered version of the Hardly Music EP, Let’s Go Steady, in 2011.