slowcore

American indie rock band formed in New York in 1989 by members Stephen Immerwahr (vocal, bass), Chris Brokaw (drums) and John Engle (guitar). Codeine pioneered the slowcore and sadcore subgenres of indie rock, but with a more experimental attitude than other bands in the genre, such as Low, Idaho and Red House Painters. The band's original tone, marked by slow tempos, Immerwahr's nasal and apathetic vocals, and Engle's ringing Telecaster, did not evolve much during their career.

The band started off in bars and cafes around Portland with singer-songwriter Al James performing songs as Dolorean. It picked up speed after he teamed up with Jay Clarke and the two began to perform as a duo. Al on the guitar and Jay on a student piano. The resulting work was considered album worthy. So, with the help of The Standard's Robbie Duncan on drums Dolorean cut its first album on CDR in 2000 (later re-released in 2004).

Clare and the Reasons call Brooklyn home, but after touring around the world extensively for their first two albums with Van Dyke Parks, My Brightest Diamond, and on their own, they needed a new setting – one that would make them see and hear differently. For 8 months in 2011 they lived in an apartment on Berlin’s Bergstrasse, on the western edges of what used to be the East. They got a 1968 Schwalbe moped – model KR-51 – and sped around the city at a velocity the congested New York streets would have prohibited.

There is more than one artist with this name: 1) Indie band Sophia includes The Flower Shop Recordings mainman and former The God Machine singer/guitarist Robin Proper-Sheppard. After the sudden and tragic death of schoolfriend and God Machine bassist Jimmy Fernandez, Proper-Sheppard began searching for a new musical outlet. Together with friends and fellow musicians from other Flower Shop bands Elevate, Ligament and Oil Seed Rape, Proper-Sheppard began working on the music that would become known as Sophia.

Read more about Sophia on Last.fm.