Ashrae Fax

Greensboro, North Carolina's cult dream pop revivalists Ashrae Fax featured vocalist Renee Mendoza and guitarist Alex Chesney. A couple of self-described "art kids," the pair's frustration with the lack of anything interesting going on in their town in the late '90s gave shape to their music, which revitalized the most ethereal and chaotic moments of the Cocteau Twins, Dif Juz, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The pair self-released the debut album Static Crash in 2003 on spray-painted CD-Rs to little acclaim at the time, but eventually word spread. Mexican Summer gave the album its widest release yet with their 2013 reissue, the first in a series of Ashrae Fax releases. Next was 2014's Never Really Been Into It, a re-recorded collection of Mendoza and Chesney's earliest songs. ~ Heather Phares