Cardinal was a one-off project from singers/songwriters Richard Davies and Eric Matthews. The duo came together in 1994 following ex-Moles frontman Davies' relocation from his native Australia to the U.S.; he wrote and sang all but one of the songs that comprised Cardinal's self-titled debut, while the Oregon-born Matthews arranged the... [+] Read More

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Folk-punk singer/songwriter Elliott Smith rose from indie obscurity to mainstream success in 1997 on the strength of "Miss Misery," his Academy Award-nominated song from the film Good Will Hunting. A native of Portland, OR, Smith began writing and recording his first songs at age 14, later becoming a fixture of the city's thriving music scene;... [+] Read More

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The work of Eric Matthews was a direct reaction to the lo-fi recording practices so prevalent throughout the alternative music scene of the 1990s; while many of the decade's artists trafficked in a defiantly ragged, do-it-yourself aesthetic, Matthews' records grew out of orchestral theories and practices, and revelled in the stately elegance of... [+] Read More

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Between the recording and release of Slowdive's ambient Pygmalion, Neil Halstead began writing more song-based tunes to occupy down time. Weeks after being dropped by Creation, Halstead and the remaining members of Slowdive (Rachel Goswell and Ian McCutcheon) recorded six demos within three days, much of it live without overdubs. Their manager... [+] Read More

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Momus was the alias of Nick Currie, a Scottish-born singer, songwriter, and provocateur whose music careened from acoustic ballads to electro-pop to acid house and back again. Born in 1960, Currie spent time living in Greece and Canada before returning to Scotland to attend university; in 1981, he dropped out of school to form the Happy Family,... [+] Read More

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Best known as the frontman of cult favorite teen punk combo Squirrel Bait, singer/songwriter Peter Searcy was born and raised in Louisville, KY, where as a child he studied cello and violin. Profoundly influenced by the music of Hüsker Dü and Minor Threat, in 1984 he co-founded Squirrel Bait with guitarists David Grubbs and Brian McMahan,... [+] Read More

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Although the avant-chamber trio Rachel's did not fully emerge until after the breakup of the seminal Louisville indie group Rodan, the trio's origins dated back to 1989, when guitarist and bassist Jason Noble first met violinist and Juilliard alumnus Christian Fredericksen on a Baltimore trolley. After the duo composed a 1991 Christmas tape... [+] Read More

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Australian-born singer-songwriter Richard Davies formed the chamber-pop unit the Moles in Sydney in the late 1980s after growing disenchanted with studying law; concluding that he preferred composing poetry to writing essays for his class assignments, he soon began crafting his first songs. After finding some underground success in their native... [+] Read More

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A longtime pillar in the Chicago underground community and architect of the post-rock sound, Sam Prekop first gained notoriety at the helm of Shrimp Boat before becoming the leader of the Sea and Cake, whose fusion of styles both in and out of rock was both creative and experimental while remaining highly listenable. Prekop holds considerable... [+] Read More

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The Divine Comedy is the alias for Neil Hannon, a British pop singer/songwriter with aspirations of becoming a new wave fusion of Scott Walker, Morrissey, and Electric Light Orchestra. During the early '90s, he built up a strong cult following with a pair of idiosyncratic, critically acclaimed records before his third album, Casanova, became a... [+] Read More

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More than any band that came out of late-'70s England, the Mekons (the name taken from the popular sci-fi comic Dan Dare) have perhaps the most devoted fans of any band even remotely connected to punk rock. And why not? After 25 years together, this band, with an ever-shifting lineup (only Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh remain from the original... [+] Read More

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Tindersticks were one of the most original and distinctive British acts of the '90s, standing apart from both the British indie scene and the rash of Brit-pop guitar combos that dominated the U.K. charts. Where their contemporaries were often direct and to the point, Tindersticks were obtuse and leisurely, crafting dense, difficult songs layered... [+] Read More

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