Sportsguitar

Formed in 1993 in Lucerne, Switzerland, the lo-fi group Sportsguitar originated from the collaboration of frontman Oliver Obert and multi-instrumentalist Roland Saum, both of whom had previously worked together in Hypocrisy in Spring. Having cut a demo, the pair submitted it to various international labels without success, leading them to release their first full-length Fade/Cliché in 1994 via their self-established imprint Our Own Records. Once a cassette reached SubPop, that label put out the "Gong Gong" single at the beginning of 1995, and the band's follow-up LP Married, 3 Kids from 1996 came out on the prominent U.S. independent Matador. The year 1998 then saw the arrival of Happy Already.