Shimmer Kids Underpop Association

The Shimmer Kids Underpop Association are a lo-fi, 60's psychidelia-influenced indie pop band. Lyrically reminiscent of the stylings of Stuart Murdoch and instrumentally eclectic in the same fashion as artists such as Olivia Tremor Control from the Elephant 6 label, the Shimmer Kids are clever, original, and a refreshing change of socks from the hellishly unrelenting and agonizing assault on the senses that is much of modern pop music.

Most of the group members are California born and bred, having made each others acquaintance while taking courses at the University of California at Santa Cruz. After some bold and vague movement throughout the state of California, eventually ending up in San Francisco, they made the transition from loosely-formed collective of friends to a fully-fledged and official band in 1996, calling themselves theShimmer Kids Underpop Association.

For the sake of pretentious artsiness and because it's a damn cool thing to do, the Shimmer Kids began accompanying their live performances with film footage (made by theremin player Lorelei David) and other sorts of visual stimuli. To fund their exploits and cover gig expenses, they began to sell home-made cassette tapes of their music recorded in basements using minimal equipment with even less processing. Apparently sales and gigs were successful enough to acquire for them a solid fan base because 2000 saw the release of their first full-length album, entitled Bury My Heart at Makeout Point, albeit in extremely limited quantities (only 500 copies, in fact) on their own Underpop label. The album met with immediate success and critical acclaim, especially among proponents and hangers-on of the Elephant 6 Recording Company and lovers of weird lo-fi indie rock. The album was later picked up by the independent music distributor Parasol, and all copies of it were sold out with great alacrity; it is now sadly out of print, but available in MP3 format from the group's website (http://www.underpop.org).

In 2002, the Shimmer Kids in a bid to increase the range of their musical sphere of influence sold their souls to a label based under the umbrella of Parasol called Hidden Agenda. Later that year they released a second full-length album, entitled Natural Riot, as well as the Prairie Prayers EP in between and the Book of Mirrors EP following.

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