Mazzy Star was an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Monica in 1989 from the group Opal, a collaboration of guitarist David Roback and bassist Kendra Smith. Smith's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Smith left the band.
Mazzy Star is probably best known for the song "Fade into You" which brought the band some success in the early to mid 1990s and was the group's biggest mainstream hit, earning radio and MTV airplay. Roback and Sandoval were the creative center of the band, with Sandoval writing most of the lyrics and Roback composing most of the music. Mazzy Star's roots in the California Paisley Underground movement of the 1980s are deep. Roback, along with his brother Steve, was one of the main architects of leading Los Angeles psychedelic revival band, the Rain Parade. Leaving that band after their first LP, he founded Opal in the mid-1980s with ex- Dream Syndicate bassist Kendra Smith. Opal's quasi-psychedelic ruminations, with their guitar drones and hints of blues and folk, weren't far off the map that Mazzy Star would follow, and indeed Roback met Sandoval through Smith. Sandoval, still in high school at the time, was playing in a duo called Going Home with Sylvia Gomez; Kendra was impressed enough to make a tape of their music and pass it on to Roback, who produced a still-unreleased album by the pair. When Smith left Opal under cloudy circumstances in the middle of an American tour with The Jesus & Mary Chain, Sandoval was tapped as her replacement. After that tour and a jaunt through Europe were completed, Opal disbanded, and Roback and Sandoval decided to continue collaborating in Mazzy Star.
Additional musicians
The other contributors to Mazzy Star include:
* Jill Emery - bass
* Keith Mitchell - drums
* Suki Ewers - keyboards
* William Cooper, real name Will Glenn (1957–2001) - keyboards, violin
* Kurt Elzner - touring guitarist
Songs in popular culture
* "Into Dust" appears in television episodes of The O.C. (Episodes 1x01 "Pilot" and 1x07 "The Escape"), House (Episode 3x03 "Informed Consent") and Charmed (Episode 4x06 "A Knight to Remember"), as well as an episode of Moonlight (Episode 1x04 "Fever"). It appeared in the New Zealand-made film In My Father's Den (which also featured the track "Take Everything"), in the Angelina Jolie film Foxfire (based on Joyce Carol Oates' novel of the same title), and in Alison Eastwood's directorial debut Rails & Ties. It was also covered by Ashtar Command for the Music from the OC: Mix 6 compilation, for the fourth season of The O.C. and the episode 4x07 "The Christmukk-uh". The song was also used as backing music during Hollywood Week in the 2009 edition of American Idol.
* "Fade into You" is featured in Alias (Episode 4x05 "Ice"), Gilmore Girls (Episode 1x09 "Rory's Dance"), Without a Trace, Lord of War, and Roswell, as well as appearing prominently in the film Starship Troopers. It played during the climactic slow dance scene from the 1995 film Angus. It also appeared in the Guy Ritchie film Swept Away. A cover version of this track also appears in the movie Dreamland.
* "Flowers in December" was featured in the movie Wicker Park.
* "Rhymes of an Hour" was featured in the 1996 movie Stealing Beauty, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.
* "Happy", "Look on Down from the Bridge", and "All Your Sisters" are used in the 2005 film Down in the Valley.
* "Look on Down From the Bridge" closes "Meadowlands", an episode of The Sopranos.
* "Into Dust" has also been recently remixed into a popular trance version by John O'Callaghan.
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