First discovered in Los Angeles as a treatment for love-sickness, researcher Alex Kemp (formerly of small factory and the Godrays) began refining the substance. Using himself as a test subject to learn its effectiveness, Kemp realized that LAX also helped loneliness, isolation, dysthymia, and the difficulty of figuring out how cute someone is in a dark nightclub. Obviously, he could no longer keep it to himself.
Chicago, early 2001: A team of brave volunteers forms to push this new chemical to market. Rolling up their sleeves in the lab with Kemp, we now find Josh Isaacs of Melochrome (drums, beakers), Peter Lear of Vehicle (bass, animal handler), and Meghann “Bunsen Burner” TenClay (keys) working around the clock. Days go by… the team has eaten only pizza and Chinese food for weeks… the tape holding their thick spectacles together threatens to unravel in the heat of discovery… having distilled the finest pharmaceutical-grade ingredients (art school, rehab, and bad relationships) to their purest forms: at last, LAX.

alex@artbreak.net

Merritt Lear sings and plays violin and assorted fretted instruments. She maintains a belief that, in her childhood, she and Andrew Bird were in a production of Peter Pan (playing Wendy and Peter Pan, respectively) but has yet to confirm this fact. Merritt was not named after the cigarettes, but if it helps you remember her name you can think of it that way. She tends to root for the underdog in most situations. Merritt has probably listened to Prince's record 'Purple Rain' more often than any other album. Occasionally, she has been known to string unrelated sentences together.

I sing and play guitar in Verbow. I just read The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Working by Studs Terkel, and Marilu Henner's autobiography. I just purchased my first pair of shoes in two years. I listen to The Dismemberment Plan, Bjork, Lyrics Born, kd Lang, Sloan, and me. I often park my car five blocks away from my apartment. I'm also having a hard time finding one of my friends' phone number.