Seattle, WA's Pretty Girls Make Graves took their name from either a Smiths song or a phrase in Kerouac's The Dharma Bums. Only months after the Murder City Devils—whose bassist Derek Fudesco would later join the new group—disbanded, the band launched its first national tours. In summer 2001 Fudesco began writing material alongside Andrea Zollo, a former Death Wish Kids collaborator, along with ex-Bee Hive Vaults musicians Nathen Johnson and Nick DeWitt and Jason Clark from Kill Sadie. Their debut Dim Mak release, a self-titled four-song EP charged with raw bursts of energy and emotion, generated enough attention to earn inclusion in AP's "100 Bands You Need to Know in '02." Good Health followed in April 2002 on Lookout! Records, expanding the EP's intensity across nine tracks and twenty-seven minutes while fusing early Fugazi with Rocket from the Crypt in fresh combinations. Influences from X-Ray Spex and the Avengers, delivered through layered backup vocals and a driving rhythm section, further clarified the group's lineage. Vocalist Zollo rejected comparisons to Sleater-Kinney or Bikini Kill, noting that Pretty Girls Make Graves bore no sonic resemblance to either band. After Good Health, the group signed with Matador and issued the single This Is Our Emergency in late 2003, followed shortly by the full-length New Romance. Extensive touring ensued with Death Cab for Cutie, Bloc Party, and Franz Ferdinand; keyboardist Leona Marrs joined the lineup before the band released Élan Vital in early 2006. One year later, after a concluding round of spring shows, Pretty Girls Make Graves disbanded when drummer DeWitt exited and the remaining members chose not to continue without him.
