Helium

Helium ranked among the 1990s’ most distinctive and erratic groups, anchored by Mary Timony’s exploratory guitar approach and vocals that alternated between forceful and exposed. Across a five-year run the band issued a modest collection of albums and EPs whose feminist themes were paired with sounds stretching from abrasive rock to fragile, progressive textures that later shaped numerous indie artists.

A classically trained guitarist who had performed with the Washington, D.C. experimental outfit Autoclave, Timony relocated to Boston in the early 1990s to pursue English Literature studies at Boston University. In summer 1992 she took over vocal duties from Mary Lou Lord in the group started by former Dumptruck drummer Shawn King Devlin and bassist Brian Dunton; guitarist Jason Hatfield departed soon after her arrival. Helium unveiled their elliptical yet forceful style through the 1993 singles The American Jean and Hole in the Ground, then expanded the approach on the 1994 Pirate Prude EP with its sharper focus on feminist subject matter and jagged guitars.

Polvo guitarist Ash Bowie stepped in for Dunton on bass in time to record the band’s debut full-length, 1995’s The Dirt of Luck. That album drew on shoegaze and horror-film scoring to produce some of Helium’s most approachable material. The keyboard-driven Superball EP appeared later the same year, signaling further sonic shifts. Synths and mystical motifs grew still more central on 1997’s No Guitars EP and the Mitch Easter-produced 1998 album The Magic City. Once the supporting U.S. tour concluded, the group dissolved.

Timony began a solo career in the 2000s that moved from the Magic City-like Mountains (2000) and Golden Dove (2002) to the more rock-focused Ex Hex (2005, issued on Autoclave’s Lookout Records) and The Shapes We Make (2007). After a short period in Soft Power she joined Wild Flag alongside Sleater-Kinney members Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss plus the Minders’ Rebecca Cole; the quartet released a self-titled album in 2011 before splitting in 2013. Timony next assembled the garage-rock and power-pop outfit Ex Hex with Fire Tapes bassist Betsy Wright and the Aquarium drummer Laura Harris, whose debut Rips arrived in 2014. In 2017 Helium’s catalog was reissued and a wealth of single and EP tracks, along with demos and previously unreleased material, appeared on the compilation Ends with And.