Upon unearthing old photos from 20+ years ago, I decided to make a video for my early '90s band Anomie's song, Seebreeze. Anomie was a starting point for several bands, including faded sf (  / fadedsfmusic  ) , halou (  / halouband  , and Stripmall Architecture (  / stripmallarchitecture  ) . This song was mixed from the original 4-track cassette recorded in early 1994. The awesome live photos were taken by Hiroshi Hata at UCSC in 1993.
Anomie was a Santa Cruz, CA shoegaze band formed in late 1992, by Darren Thompson and Jeremy True. They had been in several high school and college rock groups already, but after hearing bands like Curve, Slowdive and the Cocteau Twins pushing the boundaries of music further and further they answered the call for their own musical exploration. Ryan Coseboom worked at an indie record store downtown, and had his own synth-pop project "Thinner." He was drafted to play keyboards at first, but soon switched to playing electronic drums. Brent Christian played additional keyboards at live shows.
Jeremy wrote almost all of the music, though he collaborated with Darren whenever possible. Darren's guitars alternated between ambient chords or waves of feedback while Jeremy's melodic lead guitar echoed in the empty spaces. Jeremy programmed the drums, samplers, and keyboards for each song. In 1993, after several tryouts , a friend of Jeremy's suggested Rebecca Chenitz audition. At first it seemed like an odd mix, as she was heavily into the "Riot Grrl" scene. Although familiar with Mazzy Star, shoegaze was still a mystery. She began integrating herself into the collection of music they band already composed. Anomie played a few shows that fall before Ryan moved to L.A., and Darren returned to UCSC.
Anomie was now a duo, Jeremy True performing all of the music, and Rebecca Chenitz writing lyrics and vocal lines. Work began in earnest, with Rebecca supplying scraps of poetry and verse for Jeremy to de-construct and write music around. Sometimes Jeremy would have a vocal melody for a verse or chorus, and Rebecca would write lyrics to that. During the last month of 1993 and the first two months of 1994 Rebecca and Jeremy wrote and recorded the band's only full album, titled Burgundy Girl, on a Tascam 4-track. The tracks were a blend of genres- some had acoustic guitars layered with textures, others had aggressive beats and bass lines with screaming guitar feedback. After hearing the recordings, Ryan moved back to Santa Cruz. Seebreeze had an extra layer of live e-drums by Ryan on top of the programmed beats.
With the release of Burgundy Girl, Anomie began playing to rapt audiences in Santa Cruz. Rebecca began playing bass for live concerts. Darren was also enticed back into the group by the new material. Anomie were fast becoming a legendary live act in Santa Cruz.
That fall the band moved with Rebecca up north to San Francisco. The group recorded a single in 1994, but the energy was gone. Everyone living in one flat failed to bring them together, instead their close proximity drove them apart. Anomie would soon be over.
In July of 1995, Jeremy left the group. Darren also left, later re-joining Jeremy in his next band, The Bitter End. Ryan and Rebecca also started over with a new group, Anymore. (their fliers read, "We're not Anomie, Anymore."
In the years following, Ryan Coseboom would marry Rebecca. Upon meeting well connected producer The Count they started a new group, Halou (  / halouband  . Halou was still dream-pop shoegaze, but also dabbled in trip-hop and electronics. They recorded several albums and E.P.s.
In mid 1997 Jeremy and Darren reunited as Faded, which in 2000 became a duo again, with Jeremy's wife Christina True playing bass and singing. The group was renamed "faded sf." They played shows around the bay area and recorded music for several years, until they finally came full circle and moved back to Santa Cruz. Their most recent album, "broken down, breaking down' was released on 12-12-12 (http://fadedsf.bandcamp.com/album/bro...) More music has been forthcoming from the newly re-energized duo who have began playing concerts again.
In 2008 Halou dissolved and became Stripmall Architecture. Ryan and Rebecca continue their forays into electronic indie pop, including various side projects such as darkdriveclinic.