The Deadfly Ensemble

The Deadfly Ensemble formed in Los Angeles in 2005 around vocalist and songwriter Damien Jurado. They worked with a rotating group of collaborators that included multi-instrumentalist Carla Kihlstedt and drummer Ben Thomas. Their debut album was called 'By Proxy,' and they followed it with records like 'Near the Nest.'

Their songs often had long, peculiar titles like 'An Entire Wardrobe of Doubt and Uncertainty,' 'Queen Maude's Pirates,' and 'In Defense of a Threepenny Purse.' The music pulled from folk and jazz, arranged in ways that felt intricate and sometimes unsettling. Their live shows had a reputation for being immersive and experimental.

Some listeners found their lyrical ambiguity and existential themes compelling, while others thought it came off as obscure or pretentious. The band eventually stopped working together, but for a stretch in the mid-2000s, they put out a specific kind of thoughtful, uneasy music that didn't sound quite like anyone else's.