Seam was an American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band formed in Chapel Hill,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and based in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

,. Active from 1991 to 2000, it was led by principal songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and sole continuous member

Sooyoung Park Sooyoung Park (born 1967) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for fronting the bands Bitch Magnet and Seam. In 1995 he co-founded Foundation of Asian American Independent Media, an art festival dedicated to showcasing Asian American cu ...

, former frontman of

Bitch Magnet Bitch Magnet was an American post-hardcore band who formed in 1986 at Oberlin College in Ohio and later moved to North Carolina. History Bitch Magnet released their first record in 1988. All of the band's albums were released on Communion Re ...

. Seam's initial line-up included bassist Lexi Mitchell and drummer

Mac McCaughan Ralph Lee "Mac" McCaughan (; born July 12, 1967) is an American musician and record label owner, based in North Carolina. His main musical projects have been Superchunk since 1989 and Portastatic since the early 1990s. In 1989 he founded the ind ...

.Strong, Martin C. (1999) ''The Great Alternative & Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 548 Seam's style is characterized by "slow, affecting melodies and vocals." The band's music is considered influential on "legions of

emo Emo () is a genre of rock music characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and from the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands ...

and

college rock College rock is rock music played on student-run university and college campus radio stations located in the United States and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. The stations' playlists were often created by students who avoided the mainstream rock p ...

acts."

History

The band signed to

Homestead Records Homestead Records was a Long Island, New York–based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading that operated from 1983 to 1996. While the record label was renowned for releasing work of artists such as Sonic Youth, Big Black, a ...

in the United States and

City Slang City Slang is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany. History The independent music label City Slang was founded in 1990 as a European outpost for American indie rock. Thirty years later, the imprint represents a diverse roster o ...

in Europe, and released debut album '' Headsparks'' in 1992, the same year the band relocated to Chicago. In 1993 they left Homestead for

Touch and Go Records Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. To ...

, releasing the "Kernel" single before McCaughan left to be replaced by Bob Rising, with Craig White also joining on guitar. This line-up recorded the band's second album, '' The Problem with Me'' in 1993. The band returned in 1995 with the album '' Are You Driving Me Crazy?'', with Park now joined by a new line-up of Reg Shrader (guitar), William Shin (bass guitar), and Chris Manfrin (drums). The band's final album, '' The Pace Is Glacial'', was released in 1998. Their last tour was in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, in 2000.

Drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Chris Manfrin later played in the band Bottomless Pit, featuring two members from former labelmates

Silkworm ''Bombyx mori'', commonly known as the domestic silk moth, is a moth species belonging to the family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of '' Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. Silkworms are the larvae of silk moths. The silkworm is of ...

Members

Final lineup

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

(1991–2000) *William Shin – bass (1994–2000) *Chris Manfrin – drums (1993–2000)

Other members

*Craig White – guitar (1992–1993) *Reg Shrader – guitar (1993–1998) *John Lee – guitar (1999) *Lexi Mitchell –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

(1991–1994) *

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(1991–1992) *Bob Rising – drums (1992–1993)

Discography

;Studio albums *'' Headsparks'' (1992, Homestead) *'' The Problem with Me'' (1993, Touch and Go) *'' Are You Driving Me Crazy?'' (1995, Touch and Go) *'' The Pace Is Glacial'' (1998, Touch and Go) ;EPs and singles *"Days of Thunder" (1991, Homestead) *"Granny 9X" (1992,

Merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

) *''

Kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learnin ...

'' (1993, Touch and Go) *"Hey Latasha" (1995, Ché) *"Sukiyaki" (1999, Ajax)

References

External links

Band site at tgrec.com
* Online history of Seam {{Authority control Musical groups from Chapel Hill-Carrboro, North Carolina Musical groups from Chicago Indie rock musical groups from North Carolina Indie rock musical groups from Illinois Homestead Records artists Touch and Go Records artists Musical groups established in 1991 1991 establishments in the United States Slowcore groups