Blonde Redhead

Italian born brothers Amedeo (guitar) and Simone (drums/vocals) Pace moved to New York City after earning Bachelor's degrees in jazz, where upon the two met Kazu Makino (vocals/guitar), an art student, randomly at an Italian restaurant, deciding to form a band shortly after. Maki Takahashi joined as a bassist. Their caustic art rock soon gathered attention from Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley. With Shelley acting as producer, their self-titled debut album was released on his label, Smell Like Records. Takahashi left the band shortly after, with Blonde Redhead continuing as a trio, releasing a second album, "La Mia Vita Violenta" in the same year.

For their next release, "Fake Can Be Just as Good," they were joined by Unwound's bassist, Vern Rumsey, who was a guest on the album. In their following releases, they scaled back their sound to just guitars and vocals, with "In an Expression of the Inexpressible," "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons" and "Melodie Citronique" released between 1998 and 2000. Guy Picciotto from Fugazi assisted in the production of these albums, as well as lending his vocals to "Futurism vs. Passeism Part 2." Folowing and accident where Makino was trampled by a horse, a few years were taken for recovery. But In 2004, they had signed with 4AD, and returned to making music, coming out with "Misery is a Butterfly."

Whilst they had scaled back their sound, their music became increasingly more influenced by electronica. Their following releases continued with this developing sound, incorporated delicate textures of dream pop, making for a less chaotic listen. 2007's "23" and 2010's "Penny Sparkle" were a success, with several songs featured on television soundtracks. The band also wrote and recorded 15 tracks for the soundtrack of the film "The Dungeon Masters" in 2010.