JJ72

The Irish-based indie guitar trio JJ72 first crawled out of their Dublin nest in 1997, as lead singer Mark Greaney and drummer Fergal Matthews found each other in the city's Belvedere College mostly due to a mutual admiration for Joy Division, Nirvana, and what Matthews called Greaney's "cool jacket." After going through an assortment of bass players, the two of them locked onto a young actress by the name of Hilary Woods to fill out the band. With all the members in place, the newly formed trio finally had the opportunity to start sending out demo copies of the band's "Oxygen" to a number of radio stations and press outlets. Despite these slow first steps, DJs and music journalists quickly stopped wondering what the band's name meant (most common theories being a type of washing machine or even Janis Joplin's weight in stone) and even started to champion the band as one of the brightest hopes for indie guitar music in 2000. In February 2003, Woods left the group for other personal goals. A permanent replacement was not known at the time of the bassist's departure. Three years later, JJ72 officially called it quits in June 2006 after more than a decade together. A reason for the split was due to the band's strained relationship with their record company, and the lack of funding for a third JJ72 album.