Manishevitz

Manishevitz began in Virginia as the brainchild of Adam Busch, formerly of the Curious Digit. With the help of guitarist Via Nuon, the band's first release for Jagjaguwar, (1999's Grammar Bell and the All Fall Down,) was a promising disc of intimate, gentle indie pop liberally laced with folk and acoustic blues tones. Busch and Nuon soon decamped for the indie rock hotbed of Chicago. For their second album, the core duo enlisted the help of some of the city's indie rock stalwarts like Ryan Hembrey (Edith Frost , Can.Ky.Ree, etc.), saxophonist Nate Lepine, drummer Joe Adamik (Califone), and cellist Fred Longberg-Holm. 2000s Rollover is a fine record that leaves the intimacy of Grammar Bell behind and ventures into baroque pop territory. The band spent the next two years playing the occasional show and changing their musical direction to reflect their love of '70s glam and new wave, especially Roxy Music and Brian Eno. 2002's Private Lines EP was a short preview of their newly aggressive and exciting sound. They even cover the Roxy Music song "2HB" to make their intentions obvious. 2003's City Life presented the full flowering of their revamped sound, winning critical raves and placing Manishevitz at the forefront of the wave of '70s revivalists sweeping the underground rock scene in the early 2000s.