From a quiet suburban community outside of Cleveland, Ohio-comes a sound all it's own. Jimmy Aschenbener has been a part of area bands for 20 year-Including Back Pages, Lake Effect, and Hayshaker Jones. It's all about the song-that is the motto here. Melody-harmony, and all with a bit of an edge. Playing guitar since age 5-Jimmy began... [+] Read More

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The Beat Farmers enjoyed a cult following throughout the 1980s and early '90s until the untimely passing of lead singer/drummer/guitarist Country Dick Montana in November 1995. He was just 40, and he collapsed of a massive heart attack at the Long Horn, a bar in Whistler, British Columbia, in western Canada.

Montana, a former record... [+] Read More

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At the time of their 1985 debut, Camper Van Beethoven's merging of punk, folk, ska, and world musics was truly a revelation. Self-described as "surrealist absurdist folk," the band formed in Santa Cruz, CA, after singer/songwriter David Lowery of Redlands, CA, with his dry humor and valley-boy voice (sometimes confused for a faux English... [+] Read More

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Dream Syndicate are at the foundation (alongside the Velvet Underground, the Stooges and R.E.M.) of contemporary alternative music sheerly because at the time when most bands were experimenting with new technology, the Syndicate deigned to bring back the guitar. Fronted by Steve Wynn (b. Feb. 21, 1960) and including Karl Precoda (guitar), Dennis... [+] Read More

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Essentially a two-man project of Massachusetts natives Kirk Swan and Seth Tiven, with a rotating rhythm section, Dumptruck was, for a brief moment, among the favorites of U.S. college radio in the mid '80s. They combined the jangly power pop sound of the Southern alternative scene with intelligent lyrics and a melancholy twist. Swan left late in... [+] Read More

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Game Theory formed on the fringe of the Paisley Underground movement of the early-'80s and though they certainly had a retro-'60 sound with psychedelic leanings, the band owed its greatest debt to the proto-power pop of Big Star.

Leader Scott Miller's song craft, distinctive voice (self-described as a "miserable whine") and... [+] 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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Along with luminaries like R.E.M., the B-52's, and Pylon, Love Tractor helped establish the college town of Athens, GA, as a mecca of alternative music in the early '80s. Comprised of guitarist Michael Richmond, multi-instrumentalist Armistead Wellford, drummer Kit Schwartz, and guitarist Mark Cline, the band's earliest material was... [+] Read More

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Atlanta's Swimming Pool Q's were one of the first Southern new wave bands to gain nationwide recognition in the early '80s after the breakthrough of the B-52's made folks aware that there was more to Southern rock than what Q's leader Jeff Calder called "the Boogie Establishment." However, while most of their Georgia brethren were famous for... [+] Read More

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The Reivers began their existence as Zeitgeist, one of many melodic, jangly pop bands to emerge from the fertile Austin, Texas music community during the 1980s. Led by singers/guitarists John Croslin and Kim Longacre, Zeitgeist debuted in 1985 with the album Translate Slowly, which included their cover of Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying in the... [+] Read More

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The Mississippi-based power-pop group the Windbreakers primarily comprised the duo of singer/guitarists Tim Lee and Bobby Sutliff. After debuting in 1982 with Meet the Windbreakers, a seven-inch EP issued on their own Big Monkey label, the band enlisted the aid of producer Mitch Easter for the follow-up, 1983's Any Monkey With a Typewriter,... [+] Read More

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