Bishop Allen

The indie rock quartet Bishop Allen, originating from Brooklyn after earlier ties to Boston, came together in 2003 with Justin Rice and Christian Rudder serving as its central figures. These two longtime friends, supported by a changing roster of additional players, borrowed the band's name from Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the street that once housed both Rice and Rudder. The group issued its largely self-recorded Charm School that same year, then remained silent on the release front until 2006, when it began delivering one EP every month. Those monthly records, made available through the band's own website, gradually drew wider attention, particularly after "History of Excuses" from the March installment appeared in an episode of Scrubs. By November the quartet had secured a deal with Dead Oceans, an imprint within the Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar network. The following year's Broken String reworked material from the EPs while introducing fresh tracks, among them "Middle Management," which featured in a scene from the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Film and music have long intersected for the group: Rice took a lead role in the 2002 mumblecore picture Funny Ha Ha, while Rudder appeared in the 2006 entry Mutual Appreciation. Early 2009 brought the more austere Grrr..., and in 2011 Rice joined his wife Darbie Notwatka to release a covers project under the name the Last Names. Rice later reconvened with the band to complete the fourth album Lights Out, which surfaced in the summer of 2014.