Manishevitz

Adam Busch, previously a member of the Curious Digit, first conceived Manishevitz while based in Virginia. Guitarist Via Nuon joined him for the group’s debut Jagjaguwar release, the 1999 album Grammar Bell and the All Fall Down, an intimate collection of gentle indie pop colored by folk and acoustic blues elements. The pair soon relocated to Chicago, where the two principals recruited local players for their follow-up—including Ryan Hembrey (known from Edith Frost and Can.Ky.Ree, among others), saxophonist Nate Lepine, drummer Joe Adamik of Califone, and cellist Fred Longberg-Holm. Issued in 2000, Rollover stepped away from the earlier record’s closeness and embraced baroque-pop arrangements. Over the next two years the band limited itself to scattered performances while redirecting its style toward 1970s glam and new wave, particularly the work of Roxy Music and Brian Eno. Their 2002 EP Private Lines offered an early glimpse of the punchier, more charged approach, highlighted by a version of the Roxy Music track “2HB.” By 2003 the album City Life fully realized the updated aesthetic, earning widespread critical praise and positioning Manishevitz among the leading 1970s-revival acts then emerging in the underground.