Happy Birthday was an American indie pop band signed to Sub Pop Records. The band consisted of Kyle Thomas (of King Tuff and Witch), Ruth Garbus (of Feathers), and Chris Weisman.
The band formed in November 2008 to play one show at the punk-space Tinderbox, in their hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont. [1] Lead singer Thomas played guitar and composed most of the songs, while Garbus played drums and Weisman played bass and "inverted-tuning" guitar.
They released a self-titled album on Sub Pop in 2010.
Thomas and Garbus had previously played in the freak-folk band Feathers (who are signed to Devendra Banhart’s label Gnomonsong) with Weisman's brother Kurt (who is also in Witch with Thomas and J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr). Ruth Garbus is the sister of Merrill Garbus from Tune-Yards. [2]
Weisman has gone on to self-release over 50 solo albums, [3] and also collaborates with experimental musician Greg Davis.
The Presidents of the United States of America were an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1993. The three-piece group's initial lineup consisted of vocalist and bassist Chris Ballew, drummer Jason Finn, and guitarist Dave Dederer. The band became popular in the mid-1990s for their hits "Lump" and "Peaches"—released in 1995 and 1996, respectively—which helped their self-titled debut album go triple Platinum.
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Joseph Donald Mascis Jr., better known as J Mascis, is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo artist and played drums and guitar on other projects. He was ranked number 74 in a Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists", and number 5 in a similar list for Spin magazine in 2012.
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