Recliner

San Francisco's Recliner was formed in the summer of 2003 by guitarists Ward Evans and Kevin Seidel and drummer John Benson, all of whom had been members of Bay Area ska and surf band the Swamis, and former 3-Minute World bassist George Carney. Specializing in aggressive, harmony-laden guitar rock, the quartet has been compared to bands like the Pixies, Cheap Trick, Social Distortion, and Fugazi. The band itself describes its style as the sound of "a smiling, well-dressed man with a knife." Their self-titled debut EP, Recliner, was released in the fall of 2003 on the group's own label, Poison Pen Records, and a full-length CD, Make a Friend, recorded at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Studios, appeared on Poison Pen in 2004.