Acetone

In 1992, Acetone put its first four songs onto cassette and folded into each case a Polaroid of an LP floating at the bottom of a pool. The cassette got them a manager, a producer, and a lucrative contract with Virgin. Labels were lusting for another Nirvana. Acetone wasn’t another Nirvana.

Between 1993 and 2001, Los Angeles-based Acetone released four LPs & an EP and toured with Mazzy Star, Spiritualized, Oasis, and The Verve. Against a rising tide of post-Nirvana grunge and slipshod indie rock, Acetone tapped into a timeless Southern California groove by fusing elements of psychedelia, surf, and country. The trio made its best music when no one was listening. Those original cassettes were stuffed into shoeboxes and kept in a storage shed next to Steve Hadley’s house. Counting their early years in the scuzz-rock band Spinout—their sole self-titled release came out in 1991 on Delicious Vinyl—Steve Hadley, Mark Lightcap, and Richie Lee played together for 15 years. “I think our music is all about moods and feeling, but hopefully it will get as weird as it possibly can,” said vocalist/bassist Richie Lee in 1997. “We want things to get weird in the way that you could hear an Acetone song and know that no one else in the world could make that kind of music but us.” The band ended in July 2001, when Richie Lee tragically committed suicide in the garage next to the house where the trio practiced. Afterwards, Rolling Stone ran a short obituary that said Acetone’s albums were “well received” but “failed to make any waves.” It was the first and only time the band got national press coverage.