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Lo Fi

Hoboken living room, 1989

Silver Jews

Silver Jews formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1989, when David Berman started making discordant tapes in a living room with Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, friends from the University of Virginia. People often call it a Pavement side project, but the band came first, and Berman was the only constant member. The debut LP Starlite Walker came out in 1994, followed by The Natural Bridge, American Water and Bright Flight, all on Drag City. Berman's poetry collection Actual Air was published in 1999. The band did its first tour in 2006 and played a farewell show in Cumberland Caverns, Tennessee, in January 2009. Berman came back as Purple Mountains in July 2019 and died the next month, aged 52.

Stockton, California, 1989

Pavement

Pavement started in Stockton, California, in January 1989 as a studio project for Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg, who used the names S.M. and Spiral Stairs. The first EPs, Slay Tracks: 1933–1969, Demolition Plot J-7 and Perfect Sound Forever, were recorded at Louder Than You Think, Gary Young's home studio, with Young on drums. Those early records were known for low fidelity and fractured song structures. Slanted and Enchanted arrived in 1992 and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain in 1994, then Wowee Zowee, Brighten the Corners and Terror Twilight, all on independent labels. The last show was at Brixton Academy in London in November 1999. They reunited to tour in 2010 and again from 2022. Young died in 2023, aged 70.

Four-track tapes to Drag City

Smog

Smog was the recording name of Bill Callahan, born in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1966. His parents were language analysts for the National Security Agency, and he spent eight years of his childhood in Knaresborough, Yorkshire. He began with home-made tape albums, self-released and recorded on four-track machines with substandard instruments and gear, because that was what he could afford. The debut album Sewn to the Sky came out in 1990. He signed to Drag City and has never left, working through Julius Caesar, Wild Love, Red Apple Falls, Knock Knock and Supper to A River Ain't Too Much to Love in 2005. In 2007 he dropped the name, calling Smog a really ugly word. He has recorded as Bill Callahan since and now lives in Austin, Texas.

Dayton, Ohio, fourth-grade teacher

Robert Pollard

Robert Pollard was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1957 and has never lived anywhere else. He taught fourth grade while running Guided by Voices, the name he gave his project in 1983. His solo career started with Not in My Airforce on Matador in September 1996, just as the band's classic lineup was falling apart, and Waved Out (1998) and Kid Marine (1999) came next. The side projects piled up: Lifeguards with Doug Gillard, the Keene Brothers with Tommy Keene, Boston Spaceships from 2008, Circus Devils and others. His self-financed Fading Captain Series, which ended in 2006, put out records under his own name and plenty of pseudonyms. He has nearly 3,000 songs registered with BMI, and his collages fill the 2008 book Town of Mirrors.

Zebulon, Georgia, to Athens

Vic Chesnutt

Vic Chesnutt was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, adopted, and raised in Zebulon, Georgia. In 1983, at 18, a drunk-driving crash left him partially paralyzed. Around 1985 he moved to Athens, Georgia. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. saw him play solo at the 40 Watt Club there and ended up producing his first two albums, Little in 1990 and West of Rome in 1991. The 1996 tribute Sweet Relief II got him a wider audience. After that came The Salesman and Bernadette, with Lambchop as his band, two albums with Widespread Panic under the name brute., and North Star Deserter and At the Cut on Constellation. He died in Athens on December 25, 2009, aged 45, after an overdose of muscle relaxants.

The Collection