No Bar & Grill and Bob Chaos Records Collection

No Bar & Grill was a novel idea for mid-'80's Muncie: "wouldn't it be nice to have a club where everyone who wanted to play could?" according to one its owners/founders, Jon Rans.

Rans and his partner, Jeff Weiss, were musicians and local Muncie businessmen who recognized that there was a dearth of venues where local musicians could play their music, especially in an under-21 setting. Their ethos for the club was that they were "... open to anything - musicians, comedians, singing dog acts - literally anything ... [t]here are many different forms of entertainment." The name came naturally to them, as they decided early on that they would not serve alcohol, nor cook food on site. The No Bar & Grill, located at 418 N. Martin St. in the Village, opened its doors to the public on April 11, 1985, with music performances by The Singles and M.C.R.B.

The club became a favorite of Ball State students, though there were several times when it came close to shutting down due to run-ins with the Building Inspector and/or financial issues and it was saved each time by "benefit concerts" by bands who played there regularly. No Bar & Grill hosted many bands who had already achieved (or were soon to achieve) national prominence, including Big Black, The Henry Rollins Band, Naked Raygun, Killdozer, Die Kreuzen, the Dead Milkmen, and others. Regulars Ben Minkler and Todd Pfeffer also became co-owners of the club during its heyday.

Due to the loss of its lease in the building, No Bar & Grill closed its doors to the public on May 14, 1988 at the end of a two-night closing performance with sets by more than 20 bands. Rans vowed to wait until May 30th, when the club's lease officially expired, to "... strip it back down to what it was - a lighted hole in the ground."

Repeat Performance was a record-exchange store owned and run by Jon Rans, which opened on March 28, 1981 at 420 N. Martin St in the Village. Known for its eclectic collection of albums hand-picked by Rans, it also was the place for Ball State students to unload their personal album collections rather than having to take them back home when they graduated. For these reasons, it was well-known in collectors' circles as being a place to possibly find treasures, with people coming from Indianapolis and Chicago to peruse the selection.

It shared space in the Village with Savoy Vintage Clothes (420 1/2 N. Martin St), a vintage clothing shop initially owned and run by Jon Rans' wife, Rita (along with her partner Lloyd Baldwin), which was sold in 1986 to Jennifer Johnson, a former employee and fashion student at Ball State.

The store later moved to 1612 W. Jackson St, and in March of 1995, Rans sold all of his stock to a rival record-exchange store and closed the business.

Bob Chaos Records was a cassette-only record label run by Jon Rans and Jeff Weiss, with the intent to give Muncie area musicians an opportunity to be recorded and be given a wider outlet for their music than what Rans and Weiss were already providing with their club, the No Bar & Grill.

The first release on the label was the "Muncie Sampler", released on March 15, 1985, featuring 28 different bands and musicians who answered a call for "band and solo tapes needed for upcoming Muncie Sampler cassette; original material only!; any style or type of music ok". Several more Muncie Samplers were released, as well as full albums by Latent Chaos (which featured both Rans and Weiss), The Suadetones, M.C.R.B., Atomic Butterfly, and The Sonic Clams. The label ran from 1984 through 1988, with most of the non-"Muncie Sampler" music being recorded at the No Bar & Grill. The label itself was run out of Repeat Performance, the record-exchange store owned and run by Rans.