Mary Lou Lord

Helium was an American alternative rock band formed in the summer of 1992. Originally calling themselves "Chupa", its founding members were Mary Lou... Lord, Jason Hatfield , Shawn King Devlin and Brian Dunton . Devlin and Dunton were both also in the band Dumptruck at the time. Mary Timony soon replaced Mary Lou Lord on vocals and guitar as Lord was reluctant to go electric. After Jason Hatfield left the band, they changed the name to "Helium". Timony became known for her Lolita-esque image and naughty lyrics, much like Helium's then-labelmate Liz Phair. She was also known for her fairly husky, vibrato-less, monotone singing style. Their first release was a 7" single entitled "The American Jean" , which was followed by the 7" "Hole in the Ground." They released their first EP, Pirate Prude, in 1994. Shortly after the release of Pirate Prude, Dunton left the band and Polvo guitarist Ash Bowie joined on bass. The band makes an appearance in the 1994 cult roadmovie Half-cocked.
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Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and based in both Olympia, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, making it difficult to pigeonhole as having any one artistic mission. Overall, though, the political... sensibilities of the label can be said to be left-wing, feminist, and anti-war, and the label initially showed a commitment towards underground punk bands and to representing artists in the Olympia, Washington area. Moon initially started the label because in his words, "I just wanted to put out my friends’ records because nobody was putting out my friends’ records. And to put out spoken word 7" records." KRS-101 was in fact a split 7" spoken-word record with Kathleen Hanna and Slim Moon; other "Wordcore" releases followed. The first major release was a compilation of Olympia-area bands simply titled Kill Rock Stars and featured Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Unwound, Nirvana, The Melvins, as well as singer-song writer Elliott Smith.
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Pop music is a genre of popular music which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. The terms popular music and pop... music are often used interchangeably, even though the former is a description of music which is popular , whilst the latter is a specific genre containing qualities of mass appeal. As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; nonetheless, there are core elements which define pop. Such include generally short-to-medium length songs, written in a basic format , as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and catchy hooks. So-called "pure pop" music, such as power pop, features all these elements, utilising electric guitars, drums and bass for instrumentation; in the case of such music, the main goal is usually that of being pleasurable to listen to, rather than having much artistic depth.
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