Division of Laura Lee

The Swedish garage punk quartet Division of Laura Lee took shape in the mid- to late '90s, cobbled together from participants in the Swedish hardcore underground and shaped by the example of Washington, D.C.'s punk community. Its lineup consisted of vocalist/guitarist Per Stålberg, guitarist David Ojala, bassist Jonas Gustavsson, and drummer Håkan Johansson. The group quickly began performing at any available venue. Its first recordings appeared in 1998 with the There Is a First Time for Everything EP and a split single alongside the American post-hardcore band Milemarker. A second split EP, issued by the Car Crash label in 1999, paired the quartet with Impel. That same year the band self-released At the Royal Club, a compilation of singles and miscellaneous tracks that functioned as a provisional debut album until Division of Laura Lee secured a contract with Burning Heart in 2001.

Burning Heart first put out the introductory EP Pretty Electric, then followed it a year later with the proper full-length Black City. On that album the band merged Fugazi's nervy musical tradition with rowdier elements reminiscent of Supergrass and its associates in the Hellacopters. Epitaph Records handled American promotion, and the group toured in support alongside the (International) Noise Conspiracy and Soundtrack of Our Lives. Das Not Compute reached stores in 2004. Several years of work on the next album culminated in the 2008 release of Violence Is Timeless.