Explosions in the Sky

In February 1999, three longtime friends from Midland, Texas, were in a record store in Austin, Texas, and they saw a flyer that said "Wanted: Sad, Triumphant Rock Band." As it happened, that was exactly what the three Midlanders wanted as well. A drummer from Illinois had just moved to Austin and had put up the flyer. They met up the next day and started playing. They flirted with singing at the very beginning, but pretty quickly they settled into a standard rock setup—two guitars, a bass guitar, and drums, or sometimes three guitars and drums.

Over the coming months they picked a band name (Breaker Morant, named after the movie), then picked a better band name (named after fireworks), then wrote and recorded an album. That album was called How Strange, Innocence, and they self-released it on CD-R (a few hundred copies). While it was largely out of tune, it set the tone for what the band would do over the course of the next 13 years, all with the same founding members. They have referred to their often lengthy narrative instrumentals as "cathartic mini-symphonies."

A friend of theirs sent a recording of one of their live shows to Temporary Residence (a record label that was based in Baltimore at that time), and that label offered to put out albums for the band. The band agreed. A year later they put out a second album (Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever). They began to tour often, all over the world. In 2003another album came (The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place), and in 2007 they putout All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. In 2011 they released album named Take Care, Take Care, Take Care.

They also put out an EP called The Rescue in 2005, and recorded the score for the movie Friday Night Lights.

Magnolia Pictures