The Volta Sound

The Volta Sound emerged from Cleveland, Ohio, where Mike Cormier supplies vocals, acoustic guitar, and tambourine, Ben Yawns covers guitar, trumpet, and trombone, Matt Cassidy handles electric guitar and vocals, Todd "T.D." Vainisi plays combo organs, David Geddes anchors the bass, and Mike Prieto occupies the drum chair. The lineup coalesced officially in the middle of 2000.

Several acts orbit the Davenport Records imprint that Cassidy started in Kent, Ohio, a town positioned between Akron and Cleveland. Members circulate freely among these bands, which routinely appear together on shared bills.

Ben Yawns, born Ben Gmetro, also belongs to the Dreadful Yawns, a Davenport act that merges country-rock and chamber pop while echoing the style of Los Angeles’s Beachwood Sparks through occasional extended forays into Pink Floyd-esque space rock. Cassidy performs in the shoegazer-leaning New Planet Trampoline alongside Gmetro and in the indie rock band 9-Volt Haunted House; earlier he fronted the Phoebe Cates.

Cormier and his associates assembled the Volta Sound expressly to interpret the space rock material he had written for his own singing voice. The band soon cultivated a loyal regional following in greater Cleveland, serving as support for visiting acts such as the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Four-track recordings from 1999 were collected for the limited-edition release Everything’s Alright. As word spread beyond the Midwest, multiple U.S. labels competed for the group until Orange Sky Records, a newly launched division of the Dionysus reissue label, prevailed.

The Volta Sound’s first official album, My All American Girl, surfaced in spring 2002 at the precise moment the band launched its initial tour of the Southwestern United States.