Murder by Death (band)

Murder by Death
Murder By Death live in June 2011
Background information
Origin	Bloomington, Indiana, United States
Genres	Indie rock, alternative country, indie folk
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Bloodshot, Vagrant, Tent Show, Eyeball, TEAM AV
Members	Adam Turla Matt Armstrong Sarah Balliet Dagan Thogerson David Fountain
Past members	Alex Schrodt Vincent Edwards Scott Brackett

Murder by Death is an American five-piece indie rock band from Bloomington, Indiana. Their name is derived from the 1976 Robert Moore film of the same name.

Murder by Death was formed in 2000 in Bloomington, Indiana, by guitarist Adam Turla, cellist Sarah Balliet, percussionist Alexander Schrodt, keyboardist Vincent Edwards, and bassist Matt Armstrong. One of the group's first shows was at the Channing-Murray Foundation's cafe The Red Herring in Urbana, Illinois, with former American Football drummer Steve Lamos' solo project DMS. After the show, the head of the TEAM AV record label with which Lamos was working offered to help Turla and his bandmates secure additional shows. Around the same time the band met Thursday vocalist, Geoff Rickly, when the two bands played on the same bill at a gig in their hometown of Bloomington. Rickly introduced the band, known at the time as Little Joe Gould, to his friend Alex Saavedra (owner of Eyeball Records), who also took an interest in the band.

In 2001 the band self-released the eponymous Little Joe Gould EP and early the next year contributed the song "I'm Afraid of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" to the TEAM AV compilation Foreign Nationals. A short time later the group changed their name to Murder By Death, which they felt better represented their sound.

While still performing under the name Little Joe Gould, the band headed out on an 11-date tour stretching from California to Louisiana with the Chicago-based band Volta Do Mar. On this tour the band honed the songs for their debut album, which was recorded in several Chicago studios with Tim Iseler, then a guitarist with the TEAM AV-affiliated band Re:Rec. Both the tour and the recording engineer were arranged by the TEAM AV label, and the resulting Like The Exorcist, But More Breakdancing was released on Eyeball in August 2002. The band extensively toured behind the album with bands such as Cursive, Interpol, and The American Analog Set. In July 2003 the band released a split album with Volta Do Mar entitled Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Zimmer in honor of the grandfather of the TEAM AV label owner who appears on the cover. Along with the song "Canyon Inn, Room 16" from the Little Joe Gould EP, Murder By Death also contributed "Knife Goes In, Guts Come Out" and the instrumental track "We Watch a Lot of Movies" alongside an alternate version of "A Masters in Reverse Psychology". Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Zimmer was recorded with producer D. James Goodwin during sessions that would ultimately bear the release of Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? in October. In December the band released a tribute 7" single for friend and musician Matt Davis of the band Ten Grand who had died earlier that year, before continuing to tour nationwide with Lucero, The Weakerthans, William Elliott Whitmore, and Rasputina.