Raymond Edward "Ray" Johnson was an American artist. Known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, he was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art and was described as "New York's most famous unknown artist". Johnson also staged and participated in early performance art events as the founder of a far-ranging mail art network – the New York Correspondence School – which picked up momentum in the 1960s and is still active today. He is occasionally associated with members of the Fluxus movement but was never a member. He lived in New York City from 1949 to 1968, when he moved to a small town in Long Island and remained there until his suicide.
Peter Martin Christopherson was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, and former member of British design agency Hipgnosis.
John Foxx is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a solo career in 1980 with the album Metamatic.
Dan Rickwood, known professionally as Stanley Donwood, is an English artist and writer. Since 1994, he has created all the artwork for the rock band Radiohead with their singer, Thom Yorke, plus Yorke's other projects, including Atoms for Peace and the Smile. He also creates artwork for Glastonbury Festival and has published books of writing.
Heavenly Recordings is a London-based independent record label founded by Jeff Barrett in 1990. Heavenly released the first albums from Saint Etienne, Beth Orton and Doves, and early singles by Manic Street Preachers. Current Heavenly artists include Stealing Sheep, Mattiel, The Orielles, Confidence Man, audiobooks, Pip Blom, H. Hawkline, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Gwenno Saunders, Amber Arcades, Working Men's Club, Katy J Pearson and CHAI.
Tin Drum is the fifth and final studio album by English band Japan, released in November 1981 by Virgin Records. It peaked at No. 12 on the UK charts, and featured the top 5 single "Ghosts". It has received acclaim as the band's best and most original work.
John Reis, also known by the pseudonyms Speedo, Slasher, and the Swami is an American musician, singer, guitarist, record label owner, and disc jockey. He is best known as the singer and guitarist for the rock band Rocket from the Crypt, which he formed and fronted for the entirety of its career from 1990 to 2005. Prior to this he was the guitarist in the post-hardcore band Pitchfork, and also played in Drive Like Jehu during the early 1990s. In 1999 he formed the Hot Snakes, and in 2000 also formed the Sultans, in which he sang and originally played bass before switching to rhythm guitar. He played in both these bands until their breakups in 2005 and 2007 respectively. He also released a solo recording under the name Back Off Cupids, which was recorded in 1994 but not released until 1999. Over the years he has performed in many other musical acts including Conservative Itch, Stacatto Reads, Custom Floor, and Beehive & the Barracudas. He is the owner of Swami Records, a label he founded in 1999. He frequently works with bands in a studio capacity and releases albums by many southern California groups through his label. He also hosts the "Swami Sound System" program. Reis remains an influential figure in the San Diego underground music community and is currently performing with San Diego bands the Night Marchers and PLOSIVS, with Rob Crow.
Fire Records is a British independent record label, run by James Nicholls, with offices in London, England and New York, United States. The label was founded by music journalist Johnny Waller and Clive Solomon in 1985 and released early records from Pulp, Teenage Fanclub, Spacemen 3, Blue Aeroplanes, Lives of Angels and others. In the early 1990s, the label was home to Neutral Milk Hotel, The Lemonheads, Built to Spill, Urge Overkill and others. The label was relaunched in the late 1990s by James Nicholls, and has gone on to release albums by Guided By Voices, Giant Sand, Pere Ubu, Black Lips, Jane Weaver, Josephine Foster, The Lemonheads and Islet.
The Caretaker was a long-running project by English ambient musician James Leyland Kirby. His work as the Caretaker is characterized as exploring memory and its gradual deterioration, nostalgia, and melancholia. The project was inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in the 1980 film The Shining. His first several releases comprised treated and manipulated samples of 1930s ballroom pop recordings. Most of his album covers were painted by one of his friends, Ivan Seal.
Catbird Records is an independent record label formed in September 2005 in Columbus, Ohio. It is based in New York City. It was founded and is run by Ryan Catbird of music blog The Catbirdseat. The label is financed solely by advertising revenue generated by the Catbirdseat music blog.
Kevin Richard Martin, often known under his recording alias The Bug, is an English musician and music producer. Martin moved from Weymouth to London around 1990 and is now currently based in mainland Europe. He has been active for over two decades in the genres of dub, jazzcore, industrial hip hop, dancehall, and dubstep.
These New Puritans are an English music group/band from Southend-on-Sea, England. It consists mainly of Jack Barnett and his twin brother George Barnett. Multi-instrumentalist Thomas Hein was an active member of TNP between 2006 and 2016; keyboardist Sophie Sleigh-Johnson was active between 2006 and 2010. They have recorded four studio albums: Beat Pyramid (2008), Hidden (2010), Field of Reeds (2013) and Inside the Rose (2019).
Retrospective III: 1989–2008 is a compilation album by Canadian rock band Rush released on March 3, 2009. The album is a collection of songs from the third and fourth decades of the band (1989–2008), which they spent signed to Atlantic Records. The album is available in two versions. The 2-disc version includes a DVD of music and live videos.
Jane Louise Weaver is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She runs the label Bird Records, an offshoot of Twisted Nerve Records. Weaver has performed as part of the Britpop group Kill Laura, the folktronica project Misty Dixon, and as a solo artist. She was brought up in the town of Widnes, Cheshire.
Simon Bookish is the stage name of Leo Chadburn, a British musician and composer known for his work in experimental, electronic, pop, and classical music. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 6 Music, and Resonance FM. Originally from Coalville, Leicestershire, he moved to London and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1997 to 2001.
David Michael Stith is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who released his first album Heavy Ghost in 2009 on the Asthmatic Kitty label. He currently resides in Rochester, New York.
No Bra is musical artist Susanne Oberbeck's stage name and solo act, a NYC-based electronic musician, songwriter, performer, producer and filmmaker. She has released three albums.
Holly Herndon is an American artist and composer based in Berlin, Germany. After studying composition at Stanford University and completing her Ph.D. at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, she pursued a music career internationally. Herndon's music often includes human singing voices, is primarily computer-based, and regularly uses the visual programming language Max/MSP to create custom instruments and vocal processes. She has released music on the labels RVNG Intl. and 4AD. Her third full-length album, Proto, was released on May 10, 2019.
Spiders & Snakes is a Los Angeles–based glam metal/hard rock band fronted by ex-London co-founder Lizzie Grey until his death, and by former London drummer Tim Yasui. The band draws heavily from British glam rock of the 1970s and performs regularly on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood and throughout the Los Angeles club scene.
Drew Struzan is an American artist, illustrator and cover designer. He is known for his more than 150 movie posters, which include The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as films in the Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars film series. He has also painted album covers, collectibles, and book covers.
