The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks with drummer David Robinson and keyboardist Jerry Harrison. The sound of the band owed a great deal to the influence of the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, and is now sometimes classified as "proto-punk". It pointed the way towards much of the punk rock, new wave, alternative and indie rock music of later decades. Their only album, the eponymous The Modern Lovers, contained idiosyncratic songs about dating awkwardness, growing up in Massachusetts, love of life, and the USA.
Morphine was an American rock band formed by Mark Sandman, Dana Colley, and Jerome Deupree in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1989. Drummer Billy Conway replaced Deupree as the band's live drummer in 1991. Deupree recorded the album Cure For Pain, with the exception of the title track which was recorded by Conway, before being permanently replaced by Conway in 1993. Both drummers appeared together during a 15 date US tour in March of 1999. After five successful albums and extensive touring, they disbanded after lead vocalist Sandman died of a heart attack onstage in Palestrina, Italy, on July 3, 1999. Founding members have reformed into the band Vapors of Morphine, maintaining much of the original style and sound.
Michael Eliot Gordon is an American bass guitarist and vocalist most recognized as a founding member of the band Phish. In addition to bass, Gordon is an accomplished banjo player, and is proficient at piano and guitar. He is also a filmmaker and author. He has released six solo studio albums and three studio albums with acoustic guitar pioneer Leo Kottke.
Bodyjar are an Australian pop punk band which formed in 1990. They began performing under the name Bodyjar in 1994; their previous names included Damnation (1990–91) and Helium (1992–93). The latter group released an album, You Can't Hold Me Down, in October 1992. As Bodyjar their original line-up were Cameron Baines on vocals and guitar; Ben Petterson on vocals and guitar; Grant Relf on vocals and bass guitar; and Charles Zerafa on drums. In 1995 Ross Hetherington replaced Zerafa on drums. In 1999 Tom Read replaced Petterson on guitar and in 2004 Hetherington made way for Shane Wakker on drums.
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are an American rock band formed in 1999 in Washington, D.C. They have released six full-length studio albums and have toured internationally. Though the group's lineup has fluctuated throughout their career, singer/guitarist Ted Leo has remained the band's main songwriter, creative force, and only constant member. The group's music combines elements of punk rock, indie rock, art punk, traditional rock, and occasionally folk music and dub reggae. Their most recent album, The Brutalist Bricks, was released on March 9, 2010.
Epicure was an Australian progressive rock band formed in Ballarat, in 1996 as Pima's Little Finger. Their original line-up was Juan Alban on vocals and guitar, Tim Bignell on bass guitar, Michael Brown on guitar, Luke Cairnes on guitar and Dom Santamaria on drums. "Armies Against Me" and "Life Sentence", were picked up by national youth radio, Triple J. These appeared on The Goodbye Girl, their third album. Both tracks were listed on the Triple J Hottest 100, 2003, whilst the title track of their next extended play, Self Destruct in Five, made the Triple J Hottest 100, 2004.
Tanya Donelly is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in New England. She came to prominence as a co-founder of the band Throwing Muses with her step-sister Kristin Hersh. Donelly went on to co-form the alternative rock band The Breeders alongside Kim Deal in 1989, before leaving to front her own band Belly in 1991. By the late 1990s, she settled into a solo recording career, working largely with musicians connected to the Boston music scene.
Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 was an American horror punk band from North Carolina. The band was formed in 1996 by Wednesday 13, who recruited friends and former Maniac Spider Trash bandmates Seaweed and Sicko Zero. The band's history is riddled with a 'revolving door' lineup with 13 being the only member to have never been replaced.
Electrelane were an English indie rock band, formed in Brighton in 1998 by Verity Susman and Emma Gaze. The band comprised Susman, Gaze, Mia Clarke, and Ros Murray. Their music drew from a wide range of influences including Neu!, Stereolab, Sonic Youth, and the Velvet Underground. Although the band had strong feminist and political views in their personal lives, they generally preferred to not communicate that directly to their fans or through their music; one exception is their inclusion of the protest song "The Partisan," - a Leonard Cohen cover - which they began playing while on tour in the United States during the months preceding the 2004 Presidential election. The band, when playing live, had a reputation for a focused show that minimised audience interaction and rarely included more than one encore.
RAQ are a psychedelic/progressive rock jam band quartet from Burlington, Vermont.
Novastar is a Belgian rock band led by Dutch-born singer-songwriter and guitarist/pianist Joost Zweegers. They are known for their emotional ballads, and the high pitch of Zweegers's voice. Zweegers has also released solo material under the name Novastar.
Mia Celeste Dyson is an Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist. She has released six studio albums. Her second, Parking Lots, won the ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2005. Since 2013, Dyson has concurrently released music under the name Dyson, Stringer & Cloher with Liz Stringer and Jen Cloher.
Pentagram is an American heavy metal band from Alexandria, Virginia, most famous as one of the pioneers of heavy metal, and the sub-genre of doom metal in particular. As such, they are considered one of the "big four of doom metal," alongside Candlemass, Saint Vitus and Trouble. The band was prolific in the underground scene of the 1970s, producing many demos and rehearsal tapes, but did not release a full-length album until re-forming in the early 1980s with an almost completely new line-up. Throughout the band's history, the only constant member has been vocalist Bobby Liebling. The revolving line-up of Pentagram has featured many well-respected musicians in the local doom metal scene, with members spending time in other acts such as the Obsessed, Place of Skulls, Internal Void, Spirit Caravan, among many others. The band's current line-up consists of Liebling (vocals), Matt Goldsborough (guitar), Greg Turley (bass), and "Minnesota" Pete Campbell (drums).
Apse was an American rock band signed to the UK label ATP Recordings and Spanish label Acuarela Discos. The band moved through many different musical styles since its inception, weaving together at various times shoegazer, Heavy Metal, gothic rock, post-punk, prog-rock, industrial, and post-rock influences; while at the same time working in experimental, ambient and ethereal atmospheres. The most common lyrical themes had to do with spirituality, relationships with others, paranoia, power, and control.
MGMT is an American rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by singers and multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Alongside VanWyngarden and Goldwasser, MGMT's live lineup currently consists of drummer Will Berman, bassist Simon O’Connor, and guitarist and keyboardist James Richardson.
David Hirschfelder is an Australian musician, film score composer and performer. As a musician he has been a member of Little River Band and John Farnham Band. He has composed film scores for many films, including Strictly Ballroom, Australia, The Railway Man, The Water Diviner and The Dressmaker. He was nominated for Academy Awards for his scores for Shine and Elizabeth.
Stylus were an Australian blue-eyed soul group formed in 1975. They were the only Australian act to be released by Motown Records in the USA. Stylus toured supporting George Benson, Average White Band, Ike & Tina Turner, and Little River Band. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, Stylus "scored a number of hit singles and became very popular on the Australian pub and concert circuit". The group disbanded in 1979 and subsequently had various reunions. In 1998-99 Japan's Toshiba-EMI re-issued three Stylus albums on CDs. Their reunions have resulted in a live album, Still Alive (2003); and a new studio album, Across Time (2010).
Paul Kelly is an Australian rock musician. He started his career in 1974 in Hobart, Tasmania and has performed as a solo artist, in bands as a member or has led bands named after himself. Some backing bands recorded their own material under alternate names, Professor Ratbaggy and Stardust Five, with Kelly as an individual member. As of September 2017, Paul Kelly's current band members are Cameron Bruce on keyboards and piano, Vika and Linda Bull on backing vocals and lead vocals, his nephew Dan Kelly on lead guitar and backing vocals, Peter Luscombe on drums and Bill McDonald on bass guitar.
Via Audio is an American indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York. Their first full-length album Say Something, was released in 2007 by Sidecho Records, to positive reviews from prominent independent music publications such as Pitchfork Media, Alternative Press, Spin Magazine, & Tiny Mix Tapes. The band met while attending college at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, later moving to Brooklyn, New York. They released their second full-length album titled Animalore on Undertow Music on March 9, 2010; it was produced by Spoon's Jim Eno. Their third full-length album titled "Natural Language" was self-released on March 25, 2014. It was produced and recorded by Dan Molad in Brooklyn, NY.
Justin Levinson is a singer/songwriter from Vermont.
