Harrisonburg, VA · alternative

sleepytime trio

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Mid-nineties Harrisonburg band whose knotty, frantic hardcore fed the Virginia screamo scene that followed — long-scarce records, played live again decades later.

sleepytime trio grew out of Maximillian Colby, a Harrisonburg band whose members used the trio as a side project featuring Drew Ringo on guitar, Ben Davis on bass and Jonathan Fuller on drums. When Maximillian Colby ended, Dave Nesmith joined on second guitar and the group became a four-piece, the lineup that carried the band through its main run.

Live, the band built a reputation for shows that could tip into disarray, gear breaking and members tangled up mid-song. They shared bills across the mid-Atlantic with acts including Shotmaker, Rye Coalition, Lungfish, Hot Water Music, Frodus and Boys Life, part of a wider network of bands working the same jagged, unresolved territory as sleepytime trio.

The band's small-press vinyl and compilation tracks stayed scarce for years, passed around within the scene rather than widely distributed. That catalog was reissued on vinyl in 2025, a joint release between Lovitt and Solid Brass records, putting the original recordings back into circulation for the first time in decades.

sleepytime trio went on hiatus in 1998, and its members scattered into other bands including Engine Down, Rah Bras, Bats & Mice and Milemarker. Even so, the four original members have kept coming back together roughly once a decade to play as sleepytime trio again, picking up the same chaotic energy each time.

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