Morphine

Picture a power trio with no electric guitar. Mark Sandman played a homemade bass, first with one string and later two, using a slide, while Dana Colley blew baritone saxophone, sometimes doubling up on horns. Over spare drums, the bandleader's deep, laid-back croon carried tunes steeped in blues, jazz and beat writing. They called it "low rock".

Cure for Pain took the sound beyond New England, its single 'Buena' picking up college radio play, while 'Thursday' and 'Honey White' surfaced on Beavis and Butt-head. A DreamWorks deal brought Like Swimming in 1997, each record stretching that offbeat vocabulary.

On 3 July 1999 their singer collapsed onstage in Palestrina, Italy, and died of a heart attack; the group disbanded at once. The Night, completed beforehand, appeared in 2000. Founding members have kept the songs alive as Vapors of Morphine, and a self-described "lost album", Cocoon, is due in December 2026.