The Hoboken trio has spent decades drifting between dreamy textures and straightforward rock without ever settling.
If you need a place to start, try The Race Is on Again or Cherry Chapstick. They give you a good sense of how the band moves between noise and melody.
They've maintained the same lineup since the mid-80s, which is rare enough. But what really sticks is how they can shift from something like The Race Is on Again to the quieter corners of Painful without losing their voice. They've never chased trends, just kept making records that feel like their own.
They formed in Hoboken in 1984 as a trio with Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and later James McNew. Albums like Painful and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One came in the '90s, and they're still recording together now, most recently with Summer Sun in 2017. Even a health scare in 2018 only paused them briefly before they returned to touring.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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