Vivian Girls

Brooklyn, 2007

Cassie Ramone and Katy Goodman, both from New Jersey, started the band in early 2007 (March, per Wikipedia) as a trio with Frankie Rose on drums. The name is from Henry Darger's book The Story of the Vivian Girls. They made a demo of five originals plus a Wipers cover and played Brooklyn and New Jersey shows, supporting Jay Reatard and Sonic Youth among others. The self-titled debut came out in March 2008 on Mauled by Tigers and was reissued by In the Red that October, selling out quickly and drawing a New York Times review. Ali Koehler replaced Rose in July 2008.

Everything Goes Wrong was recorded in March 2009 and released on September 8, 2009 on In the Red. Fiona Campbell replaced Koehler in May 2010, and Share the Joy came out on Polyvinyl on April 11, 2011. The band announced a break-up in January 2014, with farewell shows in Los Angeles and at Death by Audio in Brooklyn and a last show on March 2, 2014 at Baby's All Right; the NYC Taper recording of it runs 55 minutes. Ramone, Goodman and Koehler announced a reunion on July 17, 2019, and Memory (September 20, 2019, Polyvinyl, produced by Rob Barbato) followed. KEXP reports Ramone moved to Los Angeles in 2018, spoke with Goodman, and they practiced and recorded Memory in secret.

Side projects include Goodman's La Sera, Ramone's the Babies with Kevin Morby, Koehler's Upset and Frankie Rose and the Outs. The Stranger noted backlash from critics who saw them as clichéd Brooklyn hipsters after a December 2008 video blog, which the band retracted, saying irony was the key word. The 2019 reissues of the first two albums came from Polyvinyl. Setlist.fm lists 523 setlists, with 2009 the busiest year (173), and the WFMU session of September 6, 2008 is on the Free Music Archive.