Steven Haworth Miller is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, known as leader of the Steve Miller Band. He began his career in blues and blues rock and evolved to a more pop-oriented sound which, from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, resulted in a series of highly popular singles and albums. Miller was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of their class of 2016.
The Dream Syndicate is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active from 1981 to 1989, and reunited since 2012. The band is associated with neo-psychedelia and the Paisley Underground music movement; of the bands in that movement, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Dream Syndicate "rocked with the highest degree of unbridled passion and conviction." Though never commercially successful, the band met with considerable acclaim, especially for its songwriting and guitar playing. Bandleader Steve Wynn reformed the band in 2012, and a fifth studio album was announced in February 2017.
The Legendary Pink Dots (LPD) are an Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band formed in London in August 1980. In 1984 the band moved to Amsterdam, playing with rotating musicians and having, as core members, singer/songwriter/keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel and keyboardist Phil Knight. As of 2012, the group is composed of Edward Ka-Spel, Phil Knight, Erik Drost (guitars) and Raymond Steeg.
Chrome is an American rock band founded in San Francisco in 1975 by musician Damon Edge and associated with the 1970s post-punk movement. The group's coarse sound blended science-fiction themes, tape experimentation, and electronic noise with distorted acid rock guitar, bring together elements of punk, psychedelia, and industrial music.
Winston Tong is an actor, playwright, visual artist, puppeteer, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his vocals in Tuxedomoon and for winning an Obie award in puppetry for Bound Feet in 1978.
Half-Mute is the debut studio album of Tuxedomoon, released on March 15, 1980 by Ralph Records. It was their first long-form record, after two EPs, 1978's No Tears and 1979's Scream with a View. The album was issued on CD in 1985 by Cramboy, bundled together with Scream with a View. Cover art is by Patrick Roques.
Game Theory was an American power pop band, founded in 1982 by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, combining melodic jangle pop with dense experimental production and hyperliterate lyrics. MTV described their sound as "still visceral and vital" in 2013, with records "full of sweetly psychedelic-tinged, appealingly idiosyncratic gems" that continued "influencing a new generation of indie artists." Between 1982 and 1990, Game Theory released five studio albums and two EPs, which had long been out of print until 2014, when Omnivore Recordings began a series of remastered reissues of the entire Game Theory catalog. Miller's posthumously completed Game Theory album, Supercalifragile, was released in August 2017 in a limited first pressing.
Minimal Compact was an Israeli rock band associated with the post-punk and indie rock movement of the 1980s.
The Nuns was a rock band in San Francisco and New York City. Best known as one of the founding acts of the early San Francisco punk scene, the band went through a number of hiatuses and periodic reunions, lineup changes, and changes in style. Overall, The Nuns performed and recorded on and off from the mid-1970s into the 2000s. While the band was centered on Jennifer Miro and Jeff Olener through its various incarnations, Alejandro Escovedo, who went on to later success as an Americana and alternative country musician, was also a key member during its years of fame in late 1970s San Francisco.
Lucky Pierre is a new wave band, founded in Cleveland in 1974 by singer-songwriter, guitarist and the only constant member, Kevin McMahon. The initial line-up of the band included McMahon on vocals, John Guardico on guitar, Dennis DeVito on bass and Brian Dempsey on drums. The band has released a string of singles in between the late 1970s and early 1980s, before entering to a hiatus and reforming in 1988, with guitarist Rick Christyson and keyboardist Trent Reznor, the founder of the industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails.
Mark Eitzel is an American musician, best known as a songwriter and lead singer of the San Francisco band American Music Club.
Malka Spigel is a London-based Israeli musician and artist. She was founding member of the Israeli-Belgian rock band Minimal Compact. She has also worked as a solo musician and as a visual artist, exhibiting in prominent venues such as The Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Royal Festival Hall. She is a member of Githead along with husband Colin Newman, Robin Rimbaud and fellow Minimal Compact refugee Max Franken.
Since the late 1970s, California has had a thriving regional punk rock movement. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Oakland and Berkeley areas.
Sea Hags was an American hard rock band from San Francisco, California. Their style has primarily been referred to as motorcycle rock and sleaze metal.
Scream with a View is an EP by Tuxedomoon, independently released in 1979. It was re-released on ExpandedMusic (Italy) in 1983, and on Cramboy in 1985.
The Sleepers was a San Francisco-based band, formed in 1978. They were one of the earliest punk bands in San Francisco, and later took on a darker, moodier post-punk sound before breaking up in 1981.
George Gilbert "Gil" Ray was an American rock drummer, guitarist, and vocalist, best known for his recordings in the 1980s and 1990s as a member of the bands Game Theory and The Loud Family. In late 2012, he joined Rain Parade as drummer for a series of reunion performances.
