Michael Zapruder

Hailing from San Francisco, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Michael Zapruder first drew notice while performing in the Naked Barbies, the band fronted by Patty Spiglanin. That group issued three independent albums on its own—Dancing with Vacuums in 1994, Tarnished in 1996, and Living Independently in 1998—before reshaping itself as the Vagabond Lovers and issuing the Monarch Records release When I Was You in 2000. Around the same period Zapruder launched an individual endeavor, composing, tracking, and uploading a new song each week throughout 1999 at www.52songs.org. His first solo album, This Is a Beautiful Town, appeared on Explorable Oriole on September 17, 2002. He subsequently assembled the orchestra Michael Zapruder’s Rain of Frogs by drawing players from several active San Francisco ensembles; its core members included Nate Query of the Decemberists, Jonathan Segel of Camper Van Beethoven, Scott Pinkmountain of Pink Mountain, Scott Solter of Tiny Telephone, and Jon Bernson of Ray’s Vast Basement. The follow-up album, New Ways of Letting Go, was issued under the Rain of Frogs name on August 15, 2006, through Howells Transmitter.