London After Midnight is the brainchild of vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sean Brennan, whose work -- described by Brennan as "dark-rock music" -- incorporates elements of goth rock, glam rock, electronic, industrial, and other sounds. Brennan was born and raised in New England, and in his youth he aspired to be a filmmaker. However, after relocating to California, he became disenchanted with the cinematic process (in a 1998 interview, Brennan said, "I find the movie business to be a laughably shallow and pompous world that does not produce much good"), and he began concentrating his creative energies on music, where he could have full control. (Brennan is the sole instrumentalist on many of London After Midnight's recordings.) He launched the London After Midnight project in 1990, and their debut recording, a self-released cassette-only EP, appeared in 1991. Brennan assembled a band to perform the London After Midnight material live, and the group quickly developed a passionate fan following in Los Angeles, selling out club shows and struggling to keep up with demand for the cassette. In 1992, London After Midnight released a full-length album on cassette, Selected Scenes from the End of the World, and the group's following began to spread outside the United States, as fans in Mexico and Europe embraced Brennan's music. In 1995, a German label reissued Selected Scenes on CD, and a second full-length album, Psycho Magnet, appeared in 1996. In 1998, Metropolis Records struck a deal to release London After Midnight's catalog in the United States, and in addition to reissuing Selected Scenes and Psycho Magnet, they brought out a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks, Oddities. By this time, London After Midnight had become a significant live draw in Europe, the United Kingdom, and Latin America, as well as Mexico and the United States, and as the music took on a harder edge, Brennan's political and social concerns (the songwriter is an outspoken leftist and animal rights activist) began to play an even larger role in his lyrics. After several years of playing music festivals abroad and recording a new song for the soundtrack of the horror movie Saw III, Brennan issued a third London After Midnight album, Violent Acts of Beauty, in the fall of 2007. ~ Mark Deming