The Jesus and Mary Chain

Jesus and Mary Chain frontman Jim Reid / Photo by Eric Nowels

What's the Deal? After a messy break-up and the requisite side projects, the brothers Reid (Jim and William) made their triumphant return as the Jesus and Mary Chain on the Coachella stage in 2007 -- perhaps egged on by usage in a crucial scene in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. Since then, they've played a short U.S. tour (with international and festival dates forthcoming), claimed to be at work on a new record (!), and lent a brand new track to the soundtrack of the popular television show, Heroes. This week, their entire back catalog gets the reissue treatment.

Who? As progenitors of the genre known as "shoegaze" (usually defined by layers of guitar and static sounds and almost indecipherable vocals), JAMC were known as much for their drug use and chaotic live shows than they were for the string of excellent albums they released in their initial fifteen-year run. Their distortion-filled 1985 debut, Psychocandy, is considered to be a sonic touchstone.

Fun Fact: Last year, when the band hit NYC, we sent two self-proclaimed JAMC fanatics -- the Raveonettes' Sune Rose Wagner and stellastarr's Michael Jurin -- to the show on our dime, and turned our mics on them afterwards for their peer review. Read it here.

Now Watch This: JAMC onstage with Scarlett Johanson at Coachella '07