Concrete Blonde are perhaps best known for their 1990 alt-rock hit “Joey”, a sombre song with lyrics based on vocalist/bassist Johnette Napolitano’s real-life turbulent relationship. However, the Los Angeles band’s catalogue offers up a range of styles and moods, including gothic moodiness (“Caroline”), dark dream folk (a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”) and barnstorming twang-rock (“Still In Hollywood”). Napolitano and guitarist James Mankey started playing in a band together in the early ’80s, and they released music under different names before settling on Concrete Blonde upon signing a record deal. A 1986 self-titled debut and its 1989 follow-up, Free, set the stage for the band’s 1990 breakthrough, Bloodletting, which reached the Top 10 in Australia and Canada and made them MTV fixtures in the U.S. Subsequent albums didn’t quite reach those heights, although 1993’s Mexican Moon spawned the howling modern-rock hit “Heal It Up”. Concrete Blonde broke up in 1994, reuniting several times afterward.