True Love Always

In late 1995 the Charlottesville, VA neo-bossanova indie pop trio True Love Always came together after the breakup of local band Operation Love, when vocalist/guitarist John Lindaman and drummer Matt Datesman decided to continue working together in a smaller configuration. Bassist Tobin Rodriguez, host of the local radio program Love Songs, soon joined the lineup, after which the group started playing area clubs and cut a two-song demo. An opening slot for Versus in March 1996 brought the trio to the notice of Teenbeat label head Mark Robinson, Lindaman’s former high school classmate, who proposed reissuing the demo as a single; the resulting Mediterranean 7" appeared later that year. True Love Always issued its first full-length album, When Will You Be Mine?, in 1997, followed by additional Teenbeat 7" singles through the remainder of the decade, the 1998 LP Hopefully, and the 2000 LP Torch. In 2001 the label mined its archives for Spring Collection, an anthology of the band’s singles and other material.