Suncatcher

The three-piece Sacramento, CA, band Suncatcher met the same way that so many bands have in the past, through a newspaper ad. It was an ad in the famous Recycler paper that brought the band (Doug Hammond — guitar/vocals, Brian Knight — bass, and Roy Murray — drums) together in the mid-'90s, with Hammond being the band's unofficial leader and chief songwriter. Restless Records, who released their alterna-pop debut Owlflower in 1996, signed the band on the strength of their early demos, while Suncatcher received raves from Billboard, Musician, Request, and other magazines. The follow-up, The Girl That God Forgot, was an even stronger release, no doubt due to the fact that the band was able to grow as a unit together over the past couple of years. Suncatcher has a sound comparable to early R.E.M. (Hammond sounds eerily like Michael Stipe at times).