Chris Bell was one of the unsung heroes of American pop music; despite a life marked by tragedy and a career crippled by commercial indifference, the singer/songwriter's slim body of recorded work proved massively influential on the generations of indie rockers who emerged in his wake. Born January 12, 1951 in Memphis, Tennessee, Bell grew up... [+] Read More

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Mitch Easter carved his place in music history as a hip producer in the '80s, most notably for the early R.E.M. albums Murmur and Reckoning; unfortunately, these achievements often overshadowed and distracted him from giving his full commitment to his own recording career with Let's Active, a band that, between 1983 and 1988, released some of... [+] Read More

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Singer/songwriter Marshall Crenshaw has built up an impressive body of work over the course of his career, showing a fine craft for everything he approaches while stubbornly following his own creative muse to reach that end. To say that Crenshaw has had an interesting career so far would be putting it mildly. He's been in the movies and he's... [+] Read More

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One of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters to emerge during the late 1980s, Michael Penn was seemingly destined for a career in show business. The oldest son of director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, he was born August 1, 1958 in New York City's Greenwich Village area; within a year, the family relocated to Los Angeles, and there Penn's... [+] Read More

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After first gaining acclaim for a densely melodic sound which anticipated the coming emergence of grunge, Scotland's Teenage Fanclub spent the remainder of their career as torch-bearers for the power pop revival, unparalleled among their generation for both their unwavering adherence to and brilliant reinvention of the classic guitar pop... [+] Read More

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Along with Let's Active, the dB's defined the Southern power pop/jangle pop movement of the early to mid-'80s. The band's music was a quirky blend of smart pop and psychedelia crossed with the more experimental side of new wave. Though they never received widespread recognition outside of critical acclaim, they provided a key link between Big... [+] Read More

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The Grapes of Wrath were a jangly alternative folk-pop quartet formed in Kelowna, British Columbia, in 1983 by brothers Chris Hooper (drums) and Tom Hooper (bass), along with vocalist/guitarist Kevin Kane (later adding keyboardist Vincent Jones). In 1984, they signed to Nettwerk Records and relocated to Vancouver where they recorded a four-song... [+] Read More

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The Posies were one of the most popular power pop bands of the '90s; along with other revivalists like Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub, they helped update the classic power pop sound for the alternative age, marrying bright, British Invasion-style melodies and harmonies to loud, grungy guitars and quirky lyrics. The Posies were centered around... [+] Read More

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The Three O'Clock were the quintessential L.A. Paisley Underground band. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio in fact coined the term to describe the set of bands, including the Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green On Red and the Bangles, who incorporated the chiming guitars of the Byrds and the Beatles into their pop songs with a psychedelic... [+] Read More

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Although part of the fertile indie rock scene centered around Lexington, KY, during the late '80s, Velvet Elvis focused more on country- and pop-oriented rock than their experimentalist contemporaries, recording an EP and one album for the Hit a Note label before signing a contract with Enigma in 1987. The quartet began recording with producer... [+] Read More

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