Biography
Blue Dahlia came together in Kalamazoo, Michigan during 1995 as a goth-inflected dream-pop outfit that incorporated medieval and ethnic elements reminiscent of Dead Can Dance. Three musicians already active in a local goth and darkwave group—guitarist Derek Menchinger, Karla Wescott, and Michelle Graf—initiated the project and soon enlisted drummer and percussionist Carolyn Koebel to help develop new songs. Their self-titled first album appeared in 1997 through the modest California indie Saint Thomas. Leslie Boughton stepped in as vocalist the following year, supplanting Wescott, and supplied the original track “Bridge the River Seoul” for the DivaNation anthology Cicatrix: The Ritual Scarring. Bassist Becky Pingston entered the lineup in the middle of 1999, while Amy Kozak joined on additional vocals in early 2000, at which point Graf had already departed. That summer the quartet issued the four-song EP Estival, mixing both archival and freshly recorded material so that every former and current member contributed to at least one cut. In 2001 the band earned finalist status in the Coke-sponsored New Music Awards for unsigned acts and simultaneously put out the full-length Live at the Vickers' Theatre.
Albums
