Pet Genius

In 2006, the members of the alt-metal band Cave In announced that they were taking an extended hiatus to explore other projects, and Pet Genius was the first new band to emerge from the group's membership. Featuring Cave In alumni Stephen Brodsky (billed as Stove Top Bredsky) and J.R. Conners (as JR John Junior) on guitar and drums, Pet Genius also includes Johnny Northrup (aka Johnny Coolbreeze) of the Octave Museum, Clouds and Hydronaut on bass. Playing music that's heavy, fuzzy, playful, and melodic all at once, with a poppy garage rock undertow one might not expect given the artists' previous work, Pet Genius recorded their debut recording, a three-song EP titled Elvis Unreleased, on a four-track cassette machine and released the results in September 2007 through the independent Hydra Head Records label (through most of the songs were posted for free on the group's MySpace page). Pet Genius' self-titled full-length album, recorded under more technically exacting circumstances, was released a month later.