Dry Cleaning, Blonde Redhead, and Beach Fossils

Italian born brothers Amedeo (guitar) and Simone (drums/vocals) Pace moved to New York City after earning Bachelor's degrees in jazz, where upon the two met Kazu Makino (vocals/guitar), an art student, randomly at an Italian restaurant, deciding to form a band shortly after. Maki Takahashi joined as a bassist. Their caustic art rock soon gathered attention from Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley. With Shelley acting as producer, their self-titled debut album was released on his label, Smell Like Records. Takahashi left the band shortly after, with Blonde Redhead continuing as a trio, releasing a second album, "La Mia Vita Violenta" in the same year.

For their next release, "Fake Can Be Just as Good," they were joined by Unwound's bassist, Vern Rumsey, who was a guest on the album. In their following releases, they scaled back their sound to just guitars and vocals, with "In an Expression of the Inexpressible," "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons" and "Melodie Citronique" released between 1998 and 2000. Guy Picciotto from Fugazi assisted in the production of these albums, as well as lending his vocals to "Futurism vs. Passeism Part 2." Folowing and accident where Makino was trampled by a horse, a few years were taken for recovery. But In 2004, they had signed with 4AD, and returned to making music, coming out with "Misery is a Butterfly."

Whilst they had scaled back their sound, their music became increasingly more influenced by electronica. Their following releases continued with this developing sound, incorporated delicate textures of dream pop, making for a less chaotic listen. 2007's "23" and 2010's "Penny Sparkle" were a success, with several songs featured on television soundtracks. The band also wrote and recorded 15 tracks for the soundtrack of the film "The Dungeon Masters" in 2010.

Although frontman Payseur and drummer Tommy Gardner were the only full-time members of the band with song writing credits on 2013’s ‘Clash the Truth’, the two are now joined by Jack Doyle Smith and Tommy Davidson, and are signed to Brooklyn indie label Captured Tracks. Past members have included DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith and John Peña, who left to form Heavenly Beat.

Their 2010 self-titled debut album on Captured Tracks featured a somewhat modest attitude towards song writing – simple yet catchy lead guitars chime out over rhythmic bass lines, whilst Payseur’s echoing vocals float on alongside on gentle waves of reverb. This first full-length was followed by the release of the 2011 EP ‘What a Pleasure’, which saw the band draw comparisons to fellow lo-fi/indie purveyors Wild Nothing, whose frontman Jack Tatum appeared as a vocalist on the track ‘Out in the Way’.

By contrast, 2013’s ‘Clash the Truth’ was both more complex and more ambitious; the lo-fi approach they had previously favored was refined rather than replaced, but the addition of new elements to their sound such as the dream pop instrumental sections of single ‘Careless’ and the droning, atmospheric interlude ‘Modern Holiday’ led to an altogether more in-depth, unpredictable album. The circumstances surrounding its recording could have easily been disastrous for the band – ‘Clash the Truth’ was put together after the line-up that toured for the album ‘Beach Fossils’ had all but dissolved, and then Hurricane Sandy destroyed Civil Defense, the studio they had been working in. In spite of these setbacks, ‘Clash the Truth’ received positive reviews and reached number 40 on the Independent Record Chart.

Beach Fossils are known for their animated, passionate performances and have toured with their friends and label-mates DIIV and Heavenly Beat, as well having played with indie favorites Real Estate and Mac Demarco, among others.