Carla Bozulich

From her early days in the post-punk group Neon Vein and the industrial outfit Ethyl Meatplow to her later work with the Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella, and on her own, Carla Bozulich's eclectic music is united by an honesty and intensity that is often unflinching, and always compelling. The Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist was a fixture of the city's post-punk scene in the '80s, joining Neon Vein when she was just 15; after giving up drugs and alcohol in her early twenties, Bozulich co-founded the industrial dance trio Ethyl Meatplow. The group had a strong following around L.A. and released several singles and an album, 1993's Happy Days Sweetheart, before disbanding later that year. After Ethyl Meatplow's breakup, Bozulich went in a very different direction, crafting mournful and eerie alt-country with the Geraldine Fibbers, who were named after Bozulich's imaginary childhood friend. 1995's Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home introduced the group's searing-yet-delicate attack, which was expanded and amplified with 1997's Butch, largely due to the addition of experimental guitarist Nels Cline as a new Fibber. Despite wide acclaim for Butch's searching, ambitious music, the album ended up being the Fibbers' final statement (Sympathy for the Record Industry's What Part of Get Thee Gone Don't You Understand?, which was also released in 1997, was a collection of demos and EP tracks). The band's label, Virgin, wanted a solo album from Bozulich instead of another Geraldine Fibbers release, and the group folded under the pressure. However, Bozulich and Cline's collaboration continued in the form of Scarnella, whose self-titled 1998 album of experimental, improvisation-heavy pieces was even more abstract and adventurous than Butch and led to...