Stir

Stir got going in 1994 at the University of Missouri, a trio of singer-guitarist Andy Schmidt, bassist Kevin Gagnepain and drummer Brad Booker. The three had already played together in a band called the Choice, and when that group's singer, Rick Smith, walked away from music, they carried on under a new name as a St. Louis band with a meat-and-potatoes alt-rock streak.

They did it the hard way at first: a self-produced record, Until Now, on their own Stir Music imprint in 1995, then a set at South by Southwest that got them signed to the indie label Aware Records. Their self-titled debut came out there in 1996, recycling much of Until Now, and when Capitol picked the band up the record got a second, wider release. "Stale" is its calling card, a crunching slab of alt-rock with a sour, restless edge.

Holy Dogs, their second record, landed on Capitol in 2000, and radio programmers were calling them the "new golden boys". "New Beginning" shows why: a more melodic song, the guitars still doing the heavy lifting under a chorus made to open up on the dial.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.