an american band formed in 1989 in olympia washington. after releasing the ‘genre defining’ album earth 2 on sub pop in 1993, the band had some time off in 1997 till 2002 or 2003 when they returned to musical activity. in 2005 they released ‘hex, or printing in the infernal method’ an imaginary western soundtrack (also described as ‘genre defining’), followed by many other records, among which ‘the bees made honey in the lion’s skull’ has been the most well received critically and commercially. consisting of core members dylan carlson and adrienne davies, with past and current members including steve moore, don mcgreevy, jonas haskins, lori goldston,karl blau, william herzog and brett netson, they continue to push the envelope on ‘heavy’ instrumental rock based american music.