The Sonora Pine 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 founded by

Tara Jane O'Neil Tara Jane O'Neil (born November 22, 1972) (surname sometimes written as "ONeil"; sometimes credited as TJO) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, audio recording engineer, and visual artist based out of Los Angeles, California, Unite ...

active from 1995 to 1997.

History

O'Neil formed the band after the breakup of

Rodan is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', which first appeared as the title character in Ishirō Honda's 1956 film ''Rodan'', produced and distributed by Toho. Following its debut standalone appearance, Rodan went on to be featured in numerous ent ...

in 1995, in which she played bass. After moving to

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 ...

, she began working with guitarist

Sean Meadows Sean Meadows is an American musician best known as a founding member of June of 44 and The Sonora Pine for which he sang and played guitar. He also played bass guitar with Lungfish and HiM and has performed with many lesser known bands based in C ...

, formerly of

Lungfish Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the order Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, i ...

, and added violinist

Samara Lubelski Samara Lubelski is an American singer, violinist, guitarist and bassist. She has been a member of numerous bands, including Of a Mesh, Metabolismus, Salmon Skin, the Sonora Pine, Hall of Fame, the Tower Recordings, MV & EE and the Bummer Road, a ...

for local shows.The Sonora Pine at Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records
/ref> They then moved back to

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, where Rodan had been based, and added Rodan's drummer, Kevin Coultas, for the recording of their debut album. Pianist Rachel Grimes, of the group

Rachel's Rachel's were an American chamber music group that formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1991. Former Rodan guitarist Jason Noble played music individually and referred to himself as Rachel's but then began collaborating with core members violist Chr ...

, made an appearance on this album, which was released by

Quarterstick Records Quarterstick Records is a sublabel of Touch and Go Records. Artists *Bad Livers *Calexico * DK3 *Dead Child *June of 44 *Kepone *The Mekons * Mi Ami *Peter Móren (of Peter, Bjorn and John) *Mule *Naked Raygun *Tara Jane O'Neil *Pegboy *Phono-Co ...

in 1996.

The Sonora Pine The Sonora Pine was an American indie rock band founded by Tara Jane O'Neil active from 1995 to 1997. History O'Neil formed the band after the breakup of Rodan in 1995, in which she played bass. After moving to New York City, she began working w ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Meadows left the group in 1997, and the group worked as a trio for their sophomore effort, also released on Quarterstick. The group disbanded after the release of the album.

Band members

– bass *

– guitar *

– violin *Kevin Coultas – drums

Discography

Studio albums

*''The Sonora Pine'' ( Quarterstick, 1996) *''The Sonora Pine II'' (Quarterstick, 1997)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonora Pine, The Indie rock musical groups from New York (state)