My Dad Is Dead

In August 1984, drummer Mark Edwards launched My Dad Is Dead in the wake of Cleveland outfit Riot Architecture's dissolution, and the project has continued chiefly as his solo vehicle, periodically augmented by a shifting lineup of collaborators. Edwards acquired guitar skills toward the end of 1984 and delivered his debut performance the next year backed solely by a drum machine. He tracked his initial full-length, And He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore, inside a friend's home studio before issuing it through St. Valentine Records in May 1986. Following an extensive tour supporting first Modern English and then the Butthole Surfers, he put out Peace, Love and Murder in May 1987. Edwards inked a deal with Homestead Records at the start of 1988 and unveiled Let's Skip the Details that May. Shortly thereafter he brought aboard the project's first additional members, bassist Jeff Curtis and drummer John McEntire, who would later achieve recognition with Tortoise. The Best Defense, drawn from leftover material of the prior sessions, surfaced on Homestead in December 1988.

After McEntire departed for Bastro and Curtis declined further road work, Edwards enlisted Prisonshake's rhythm section—bassist Chris Burgess and drummer Scott Pickering—for a European tour in 1989. The band's fifth release, the double album The Taller You Are, the Shorter You Get, also arrived that year and marked its final outing for Homestead. With a fresh configuration featuring guitarists Tim Gilbride and Doug Gillard alongside Burgess on bass, My Dad Is Dead signed with Scat Records in April 1990 and issued the Shine EP. Its first Scat long-player, Chopping Down the Family Tree, followed in October 1991. More than two years afterward, Out of Sight, Out of Mind appeared on the same label under the MDID moniker. Edwards and his associates then joined Trance Syndicate the next year, resulting in the 1995 album For Richer, for Poorer.