20 Minute Loop
| 20 Minute Loop | |
|---|---|
| Origin | San Francisco |
| Genres | Freak pop |
| Years active | 1996–2009; 2014-present |
| Labels |
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| Associated acts | The Velvet Teen, Sin in Space |
| Website | 20minuteloop.com (Archived) |
| Members |
Kelly Atkins Greg Giles Nils Erickson Adam Cunha Mike Romano Kevin Seal |
| Past members |
Joe Ostrowski James Kingsbury Alex Kamages James Costello Kingsbury Dan Jones Ethan Turner Tai Kenning |
20 Minute Loop was a San Francisco-based band notable for its self-proclaimed "freak-pop" sound which exhibited hook-heavy tunes and complex vocal harmonies.
The band split up in 2009, but reformed for a one-off reunion show, opening for Imperial Teen as part of Noise Pop 2012.
In its most rudimentary form, 20 Minute Loop was founded innominately by Giles during college, circa 1995, as a home-recording project. He recorded a handful of demos to 8-track tape, but never officially released them. He did, however, have the opportunity to play them live to small audiences acoustically several times, usually with the vocal accompaniment of Kelly Atkins, who would later be the only consistent member in 20 Minute Loop besides Giles.
Giles originally toyed with other band names, such as With God on the Dog Team Trail, Pierre Bon Bon, Kill Whitey!, and PSA Flight 182, before finally settling on 20 Minute Loop. The band's name alluded to the duration of cockpit conversation recorded by an airplane's cockpit voice recorder for recovery in the event of a crash or other accident.
The actual band was established by Greg Giles in 1996, and their debut EP, With God On The Dog Team Trail, was released on New Year's Day in 1997. (Apart from Kelly Atkins, the band lineup Giles recruited for the EP featured no members of the final lineup.) With God On The Dog Team Trail featured a lo-fi rendition of Jubilation - which was rerecorded for Decline of Day - as well as three other songs that were never released in any other form. With God On The Dog Team Trail was released on a small indie label, Trystero Records, which was run by a friend of Giles and has since gone defunct.
The band soon parted with Trystero, and struggled along for a while with no means of releasing their music. They had recorded their first, self-titled album, and were already in the process of recording Decline of Day, when Jim Greer of the small, Berkeley-based indie label Fortune Records (not to be confused with the defunct Detroit, Michigan-based label of the same name) approached and offered to sign them. This begun a long-lasting relationship with Fortune Records - Greer would go on to release their first 3 albums and a split 7" with The Monolith.
Their debut album, 20 Minute Loop, was released to mostly positive critical reception, and thanks to positive publicity from local venues and indie distributor Aquarius Records, among others, they gained some recognition from the Bay Area indie scene. The band also played a great many shows in order to receive more publicity.
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Wikipedia