Named after the stage and screen actress, the Gena Rowlands Band is the brainchild of ex-chamber punk group Telegraph Melts founder Bob Massey. Massey, who has composed scores for film, dance, and web, freelanced for Spin and Salon magazines, and is curator for the Punk Not Rock Composer Salon in Washington, D.C., spent his formative years immersed in the post-punk D.C. scene. He spent a number of years playing, contributing, and touring, even collaborating with filmmaker David Wilson on the contemporary opera The Nitrate Hymnal, which brought together members of D.C.'s underground rock scene and New York's avant-classical, before assembling the Gena Rowlands Band. The band, a rotating cast with Massey at the helm, delivered character-driven post-punk with a chamber pop sheen, and released their debut, self-titled EP in 2003, followed by the full-length La Merde et les Etoiles the following year. The Nitrate Hymnal (with Anti-Social Music) appeared in early 2006, and Flesh and Spirits was released a year later. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi
