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Following a short stint as a solo performer, Alice Schneider founded
the mutating New York rock band Alice Texas in the mid-'90s,
taking on a brooding, intense sound that took a few well-learned pointers from
artists such as Nick Cave
& the Bad Seeds and PJ
Harvey. Schneider went
through various backing musicians in the beginning, including nine drummers
alone, before hooking up with former Go-Betweens bassist and
Jetset Records executive Robert Vickers, who in turn
helped to bring drummer, keyboardist, and former Bad Seeds and Sonic Youth sideman Jim Sclavunos into the fold.
Shortly thereafter, Peter Mavrogeorgis
joined on lead guitar, completing the band's first set official lineup. In 1999,
they entered the studio to record their debut, Gold, a superb, mostly self-produced album that
Schneider released
independently the following year. By that time, Sclavunos had left and Vickers returned to his
record label duties, while Schneider and Mavrogeorgis continued on
with the addition of David
Berger on drums and Byron
Isaacs on bass. Alice
Texas was featured as the 51st artist in Alternative Press magazine's "100
Bands You Need to Know in 2001" issue (March 2001) and Schneider soon thereafter
entered the studio to record demos for a second album. — Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
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