Pleasure Forever

Formed in 2000 as the third version of an ongoing partnership, Pleasure Forever arose when singer/keyboardist Andrew Rothbard, guitarist Joshua Hughes, and drummer David Clifford abandoned the name Slaves. During the mid-'90s the same musicians had performed in the arty punk outfit VSS, which issued several singles along with the album Nervous Circuits prior to its 1997 dissolution. Although the dark, angular style of VSS carried over into the subsequent endeavor Slaves, that project's 1998 EP and 1999 full-length The Devils Pleasures also suggested an emerging hedonistic glamour. Once the new millennium arrived the ensemble operated under the name Pleasure Forever, and its 2001 self-titled album both marked the updated identity and reflected the group's growing decadent aesthetic. Sub Pop released the follow-up Alter two years afterward, marking the band's most theatrical and accessible recording to date.