Lowercase

The nucleus of this avant-garde group, guitarist Imaad and drummer Brian, met in the early-'90s desert California and shared interests in lo-fi, slow, melodic music. They soon moved to San Francisco and began working with a cycle of bass players and record labels. The band debuted with All Destructive Urges Seems So Perfect in 1996, followed by Kill the Lights with Amphetamine Reptile of Minneapolis. Lowercase experimented further with its slowcore, minimalist sound on Going-Away Present on Punk in My Vitamins, a dark album even includes a 12-minute track. ~ Ron DePasquale