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Best known for fronting the Boston-based noise-pop trio Helium, singer/guitarist Mary Timony was born and raised in Washington, D.C., later studying viola at the city's Duke Ellington School of the Arts. During the early '90s she fronted Autoclave, a short-lived but highly regarded girl-punk quartet that issued a pair of EPs on Dischord before dissolving; after graduating from Boston University with a degree in English literature, in 1992 Timony replaced Mary Lou Lord in an early incarnation of Helium, assuming full creative control of the group prior to the release of their acclaimed debut single, "The American Jean." "Hole in the Ground" preceded the trio's 1994 Matador EP Pirate Prude; the brilliant The Dirt of Luck LP appeared the following year, and in 1996 Timony teamed with Shudder to Think bassist Nathan Larson, Dambuilders violinist (and former college roommate) Joan Wasser, and drummer Kevin March in the alt-rock supergroup Mind Science of the Mind. Returning to Helium for 19...