Orchid

Orchid came together in New York City in the early 1990s, with Kevin Martin on vocals and Lincoln Schleifer on guitar. Their first album, 'Gate of Grief,' came out in 1994. The next year they put out a self-titled record that included 'And the Cat Turned to Smoke,' a track that stuck with people for its drifting vocals and uneasy guitar lines.

They made a handful of albums through the late '90s, like 'Astral' in 1997 and 'Garden of Unearthly Delights' in 1998. Their songs often had titles that suggested odd, private scenes, 'Cosmonaut Of Three,' 'Chaos Ain't Me,' 'Loft Party.' The music didn't settle into one style, pulling from jazz and noise without announcing it as a fusion.

John Zorn, who had been playing drums, left in 1999. Orchid kept going after that, putting out 'Salvation' in 2000. They weren't a band that aimed for the radio, but their records found listeners who were drawn to the way they arranged sound, letting spaces open up in songs like 'Eyes Behind The Wall' or 'No One Makes a Sound.'