One of the original garage-rock revival bands, the Lyres were led by notorious larger-than-life Boston rock scenester Jeff "Monoman" Conolly. He started the band after his previous group, the punky DMZ, fell apart. The world first heard their hard-hitting, '60s-influenced garage/psych/R&B sound on a 1981 EP. Though they went through countless personnel changes, and continued (with brief respites) in some form or another for over 25 years, they released only a handful of studio albums.