With pretty pop melodies buried deep in feedback and grindingly distorted guitars, the Jesus and Mary Chain became darlings of the mid-'80s British press and a college-radio cult hit in the United States.
Their melancholy noise made them one of the most distinctive of the Velvet Underground's many musical progeny and paved the way for critically acclaimed early-'90s noise-guitar bands such as My Bloody Valentine.
Shortly after forming the band just outside Glasgow, Scotland, the Reid brothers moved the Jesus and Mary Chain to London to record their first single, "Upside Down."
The Jesus and Mary Chain's early work was sneering, thrashing postpunk, delivered in furious 20-minute sets that sometimes ended with audiences violently annoyed by the brevity of the set, the loud feedback, and/or the Reids' singing with their backs to the crowd.
The band accepted the obvious comparison to punk rock but then turned around in fall 1985 and recorded the first of its slow, throbbing noise-pop classics, "Just Like Honey," which was built on the classic Phil Spector drumbeat from "Be My Baby."
In early 1992 the group was banned from the British television show Top of the Pops over the lyrics to its single "Reverence," which included such lines as "I wanna die just like Jesus Christ / I wanna die just like J.F.K."
Stoned & Dethroned (1994) proved a departure for the Reid brothers, with its soft, acoustic sound; the album's first single, "Sometimes Always," featured Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval.
The group disbanded in 1999. William recorded solo; Jim formed the band Freeheat. On April 27, 2007 the Jesus and Mary Chain regrouped and were joined on stage by Scarlett Johansson for a performance at Coachella Music Festival.
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