Lavender Diamond is an American,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based band, fronted by singer

Becky Stark Becky Stark is an American artist, singer, songwriter and entertainer from Los Angeles, California. She is the voice of the band Lavender Diamond. Music Stark participated in the new folk movement and the LA underground punk/noise scene. She ha ...

History

While living in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, Stark began performing as Lavender Diamond in a play that she and

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

Xander Marro wrote, created and toured with called ''Birdsongs of the Bauharoque'' inspired by the work of artist Paul Laffoley. A self-produced CD of Stark's songs accompanied the tour in a hand-sewn,

silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

ed sleeve. Lavender Diamond became a duo and eventually a four-piece band after Stark relocated to Los Angeles. With the help of local patrons Brian Kaneda and Josh Scuteri, Lavender Diamond self-released a four-song EP and performed at L.A.'s

ArthurFest ArthurFest was a two-day music festival curated by Arthur Magazine. The festival took place September 4 and 5, 2005 at the Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles, California. The lineup included such acts as: Yoko Ono, Sonic Youth, The Black Keys, Modey ...

, at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

in Austin, Texas, and at the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

New Music Seminar in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Lavender Diamond signed to

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pun ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

Matador Records Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of mainly indie rock, but also punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic acts. History Matador was created in 1989 by Chris Lombardi in his New York City apart ...

in the U.S., and toured and performed with

The Decemberists The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy ( lead vocals, guitar, principal songwriter), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion), Nate ...

for three weeks. In 2007 the band released its first full-length album, ''

Imagine Our Love ''Imagine Our Love'' is a studio album by the Los Angeles-based folk band Lavender Diamond. It was released in May 2007 by Matador Records. Track listing #"Oh No" – 3:47 #"Garden Rose" – 5:04 #"Open Your Heart" – 3:11 #"Side of the Lord" ...

'' and appeared on the

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

tribute/

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

record, ''

Through the Wilderness ''Through the Wilderness'' is a tribute album with contributions from a variety of artists dedicated to American singer Madonna. It was released on November 27, 2007, by Los Angeles-based Manimal Vinyl Records. According to label head Paul Beah ...

.'' In 2009 they covered "Purple Rain" for

SPIN Magazine ''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. Histor ...

's tribute to Prince's "Purple Rain". The band parted ways with Matador and went on hiatus for a few years while its members continued to work and play in other projects. In 2011, the original Lavender Diamond lineup reunited for a few concerts in the Los Angeles area, and in 2012 released their second album, ''

Incorruptible Heart ''Incorruptible Heart'' is the second full-length album by the Los Angeles-based band Lavender Diamond, released in September 2012 as a vinyl LP, compact disc and digital download. It received generally favorable critical reviews. Background Th ...

''. Rege furnishes Lavender Diamond with all of its artwork.

Members

—

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Steve Gregoropoulos —

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Ron Regé Jr. Lavender Diamond is an American, Los Angeles-based band, fronted by singer Becky Stark. History While living in Providence, Rhode Island, Stark began performing as Lavender Diamond in a play that she and puppeteer Xander Marro wrote, created a ...

—

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, artwork *

Jeffrey Rosenberg Lavender Diamond is an American, Los Angeles-based band, fronted by singer Becky Stark. History While living in Providence, Rhode Island, Stark began performing as Lavender Diamond in a play that she and puppeteer Xander Marro wrote, created a ...

—

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Former members

* Devon Williams —

* Jeff Kwong —

Discography

Albums

* ''Artifacts Of The Winged'' 12-song solo CD (

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, self-released) * ''

'' full-length album (2007) * ''

'' full-length album (2012) * '' "Now Is The Time" ''full-length album (2020)

Singles and EPs

* "When Are You Coming Home?" b/w "Wild" (

, self-released) * ''Themepark Ashtray'' 7" with Vague Angels (2004, Pretty Activity) * ''Cavalry of Light'' EP (

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, self-released) * "Christmas Time Celebration / The Song Of Impossible Occurrences" 7" with The Queens of Sheeba, Devendra Banhart (2005, Cold Sweat records) * ''Open Your Heart'' EP (

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, with

Colin Meloy Colin Patrick Henry Meloy (born October 5, 1974) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acousti ...

) * "Everybody's Heart's Breaking Now" (2012,

Paracadute Paracadute is a record company owned by OK Go. OK Go left their previous record company, EMI, because of a disagreement between the band and the label. OK Go reissued their album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, with Paracadute taking care of the ...

)

Compilation appearances

* ''Hen House Studios Anthology 3, 2003'', performing "Lavender Diamond- Emptiness is a Conductor" (2003, Hen House Studios) * ''

'' a tribute to Madonna performing ''Like A Prayer'' (2007,

Manimal Vinyl Manimal Vinyl is a Los Angeles-based record label founded in 2006 by film/TV producer, composer and former fashion editor Paul Gebser-Beahan. History The label was started out of Beahan's living room in late 2006 in the historical Hancock Park ...

Records) * ''Purplish Rain: A 25th Anniversary Tribute to Prince's Purple Rain'', performing ''Purple Rain'' (2009,

) * '' The Switch (Music from the Motion Picture)'', performing "Open Your Heart" (2010,

Rhino Entertainment Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus. History Founded in 1978, Rhino was original ...

) * The soundtrack of game

Space Ducks ''Space Ducks: Soundtrack'' is a compilation album by American recording artist Daniel Johnston. It was released on Daniel Johnston's Eternal Yip Eye Label in 2012, with a later, longer version released on Feraltone in 2013. It was inspired by Jo ...

, performing ''Moment of Laughter'' (2012)

Mystical Unionists (Becky Stark and Ron Regé)

* ''An Introduction to The Mystical Union of Souls'' 5-song CD * ''"Sketches" for The Craft of Consciousness'' 7"

References

External links

Rolling Stone

Arthur Magazine

New Yorker

L.A. Weekly

Boston Globe

ABC News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavender Diamond American folk musical groups Indie rock musical groups from California Matador Records artists Musical groups from Los Angeles New Weird America Rough Trade Records artists