Medicine

Brad Laner, a Los Angeles guitarist, originated the trio Medicine, whose noise rock combined melodic and rhythmic elements often labeled dream pop. In his early teens Laner performed locally with Vox Pop and Nervous Gender after absorbing the work of avant-garde figures such as Captain Beefheart, Throbbing Gristle, Yoko Ono, and the Residents. Over time he appeared on more than three hundred albums, most prominently as drummer for the industrial rock outfit Savage Republic. Medicine formed in 1990 with drummer Jim Goodall; the initial roster also included guitarist Jim Putnam, bassist Eddie Ruscha, and singer Annette Zalinskas, an original member of the Bangles. Putnam, Ruscha, and Zalinskas later departed, the last replaced by Beth Thompson, formerly the vocalist of Fourwaycross.

The group’s first album, Shot Forth Self Living, appeared in the U.K. only months after the band assembled and was subsequently licensed in the United States by Rick Rubin’s American label, which signed Medicine in 1992. An EP titled 5ive followed in 1993, and the second full-length, The Buried Life, arrived the next year with expanded internal collaborations. Laner, Goodall, and Thompson recorded one further album, the sleekly pop-oriented Her Highness, before disbanding in 1995 and pursuing separate endeavors, among them Laner’s experimental solo project Electric Company.

In 2003 Laner enlisted vocalist Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter, and reconstituted Medicine. The new duo pursued a more electronic direction and issued a single album on Astralwerks, The Mechanical Forces of Love, before parting ways. As shoegaze gained renewed attention throughout the 2000s, Medicine’s influence became increasingly recognized. Captured Tracks issued deluxe reissues of Shot Forth Self Living and The Buried Life in early 2012. The reissues prompted Laner, Thompson, and Goodall to reconcile and record again; the resulting To the Happy Few appeared on Captured Tracks in summer 2013. Eschewing live performance, the band immediately began work on its next record, Home Everywhere, which surfaced in early autumn 2014. Two years later 2.0 Extraneous collected B-sides and unreleased tracks from the 2003 lineup.