Princeton

The year 2005 saw Princeton come together when twin brothers Jesse and Matt Kivel linked up with childhood friend Ben Usen during their time studying abroad in London. Most of their instruments had stayed behind in California, leaving the three with only an acoustic guitar, a keyboard, a tambourine, and an egg shaker. Even so, they captured enough songs to fill the mini-album A Case of the Emperor's Clothes, which they issued themselves the next year. After finishing college in 2007, Usen and the Kivel brothers moved back to the Los Angeles area and began writing and recording the breezy, well-read indie pop tracks that formed their follow-up release, Bloomsbury. The material drew inspiration from the various members of London's Bloomsbury Group, and the resulting EP appeared in 2008 on the band's own Striking Peasant records.