Seam was an American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(formerly from

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada * Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

). Active from 1991 to 2000, it was led by

Sooyoung Park Sooyoung Park (born 1967) is an American and South Korean singer-songwriter, best known for fronting the bands Bitch Magnet and Seam. In 1995 he co-founded Foundation of Asian American Independent Media, an art festival dedicated to showcasing ...

, former frontman of

Bitch Magnet Bitch Magnet was an American post-hardcore band who formed in 1986 at Oberlin College in Ohio and later moved to North Carolina, United States. They released their first record in 1988. All of the band's albums were released on Communion Records ...

. Seam's initial line-up included bassist Lexi Mitchell and drummer

Mac McCaughan Ralph Lee "Mac" McCaughan (; born July 12, 1967) is an American musician and record label owner, based in North Carolina. His main musical projects have been Superchunk since 1989 and Portastatic since the early 1990s. In 1989 he founded the ind ...

(of

Superchunk Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, consisting of singer-guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Jon Wurster. Formed in 1989, they were one of the ...

).Strong, Martin C. (1999) ''The Great Alternative & Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 548

History

The band signed to

Homestead Records Homestead Records was a Long Island, New York-based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading that operated from 1983 to 1996. The label was known for not paying its artists and not spending any money on promotion. History The l ...

in the United States and

City Slang City Slang is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany. History The label was founded in 1990 by former tour agent Christof Ellinghaus, exclusively to release The Flaming Lips' '' In A Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine S ...

in Europe, and released debut album '' Headsparks'' in 1992, the same year the band relocated to Chicago. In 1993 they left Homestead for

Touch and Go Records Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. Tou ...

, releasing the "Kernel" single before McCaughan left to be replaced by Bob Rising, with Craig White also joining on guitar. This line-up recorded the band's second album, '' The Problem with Me'' in 1993. The band returned in 1995 with the album '' Are You Driving Me Crazy?'', with Park now joined by a new line-up of Reg Shrader (guitar), William Shin (bass guitar), and Chris Manfrin (drums). The band's final album, ''

The Pace Is Glacial ''The Pace Is Glacial'' is the fourth and final studio album by the indie rock band Seam. It was released in 1998 on Touch and Go Records. Critical reception The ''Chicago Tribune'' wrote that Seam "distills its no-frills guitar rock into a tigh ...

'', was released in 1998. Their last tour was in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, in 2000.

Drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Chris Manfrin later played in the band Bottomless Pit, featuring two members from former labelmates

Silkworm The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

Members

–

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 ...

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 ...

(1991–2000) *Craig White – guitar (1992–1993) *Reg Shrader – guitar (1993–1998) *John Lee – guitar (1999) *Lexi Mitchell – bass (1991–1994) *William Shin – bass (1994–2000) *

–

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 ...

(1991–1992) *Bob Rising – drums (1992–1993) *Chris Manfrin – drums (1993–2000)

Discography

;Studio albums *'' Headsparks'' (1992,

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

) *'' The Problem with Me'' (1993, Touch and Go) *'' Are You Driving Me Crazy?'' (1995, Touch and Go) *''

'' (1998, Touch and Go) ;EPs and singles *"Days of Thunder" (1991, Homestead) *"Granny 9X" (1992,

Merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

) *''

Kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learnin ...

'' (1993, Touch and Go) *"Hey Latasha" (1995, Ché) *"Sukiyaki" (1999, Ajax)

References

External links

Band site at tgrec.com
* Online history of Seam {{Authority control Musical groups from Chapel Hill-Carrboro, North Carolina Musical groups from Chicago Indie rock musical groups from North Carolina Indie rock musical groups from Illinois Homestead Records artists Touch and Go Records artists Musical groups established in 1991 1991 establishments in the United States Sadcore and slowcore groups