Shannon McArdle first entered the music scene when she joined the indie pop group Mendoza Line in 1998. After moving to New York City with bandmates Pete Hoffman and Timothy Bracy (who introduced her to songwriting via a gifted guitar), she contributed several of her first compositions to the group's 2000 album, We're All in This Alone. McArdle would continue to lend her talents to Mendoza Line, but by 2004 her relationship with Bracy had become both professional and romantic in nature. The duo embarked on the side project Slow Dazzle and released an album, The View from the Floor, on Misra in 2005. They married the same year, but in the early part of 2007 McArdle separated from her husband; the breakup prompted her to go on hiatus. She returned to music in July 2007 after contacting Adam D. Gold, himself a former Mendoza Line member, and asking him to work with her on some new material. The result was Summer of the Whore, which was released on Bar None Records in August 2008. ~ Katherine Fulton