The Mendoza Line

Athens, GA, indie pop outfit the Mendoza Line were formed during the summer of 1995 by singer/guitarists Timothy Bracy and Peter Hoffman (longtime friends born and raised in McLean, VA) along with Paul Deppler and Margaret Maurice. Andres Galdames and Lori Carrier completed the original lineup, so named in tribute to ex-major league slugger Mario Mendoza, whose .215 lifetime batting average remains the absolute minimum any self-respecting ballplayer can maintain without banishment to the minors. Formed from the remnants of Athens band the Incompetones, the Mendoza Line signed to local label Kindercore to issue their 1997 debut, Poems to a Pawnshop, which favored a more kinetic indie rock approach than the subtly pastoral sound introduced on the follow-up EP, Like Someone in Love. Shannon McArdle signed on prior to 1999's I Like You When You're Not Around, released concurrently with the group's relocation from Georgia to Brooklyn, NY. The superb We're All in This Alone, the Mendoza Line's first effort for new label Bar/None, followed in the spring of 2000, with Maurice leaving shortly thereafter. The mature and more variety-filled Lost in Revelry followed two years later. In 2003, their first album, If They Knew This Was the End, was reissued. Fortune arrived on Cooking Vinyl in 2004, followed by the Misra-released Full of Light and Full of Fire in 2005. The next year, guitarist Clint Newman and drummer Adam Gold took over duties for the live shows, and in 2007, the new lineup returned to the studio to create their final album, 30 Year Low, before officially parting ways.