1. Ian Schlein's pop music project known as Musical Chairs began in the fall of 1988. Citing Orange Juice, Red House Painters, and Magnetic Fields among his influences, Schlein began as a lo-fi home-recording artist and gradually altered the recording techniques of his indie pop sound. While he began recording under the moniker of Musical Chairs in 1988, it wasn't until 1993 that the project became a full band, with the addition of Mike Vercelli on drums and Scott Neilson on bass. The group went on to record some of the most blissful indie pop sounds in the East Coast scene of the mid- to late '90s. 1993's Bottled Up EP on Pillarbox Red Records was the band's official debut. It was followed by 1994's Time Lapse EP on Somersault Records. The full-length debut didn't appear until 1998, when Wit's End was released on Harriet Records, with Jay Adelberg taking over on drums. In 2001, Scott Garon joined the group on guitar. The band also appeared on various indie pop compilations. Although the band rarely performed live, they performed with such notable indie bands as the Apples in Stereo, the Pastels, and the Legendary Jim Ruiz Group. Musical Chairs also performed at various indie pop music festivals on the East Coast, including Boston and New York. (Stephen Cramer, allmusic.com) 2. Musical Chairs is an experimental free-flow improvisation collective which centers around one goal: the non-stop creative search for excitingly new, beautiful music. Anything can happen as virtually all musical genres are eagerly explored and originally woven together in ways no one could have ever foreseen. In fact, Musical Chairs is about Amazement itself: the musicians and singers continuously surprise themselves, for they too can never predict what they will find or create. Everything ‘just happens’ in the same way it ‘just happens’ to the people in the audience, who are witnessing the very process of creation itself. Order out of chaos, constantly changing, dynamic in volume, rhythm and tempo, ups and downs, for better or for worse. The unpredictable, the improbable (luck, destiny or what?!) plays a vital part in their music: the element of surprise. Musical Chairs meet their audience not knowing what will come, while being just about to find out… Together. By carefully listening and responding to each other, the collective invites and invokes Magic to show itself. By ‘ going with the flow’ the music leads a life of its own… "Playing musical chairs" is also a metaphorical way of describing any activity where items or people are repeatedly and usually pointlessly shuffled among various locations. It can also refer to a condition where people have to expend time searching for a resource, such as having to travel from gasoline station to gasoline station when there is a shortage. It is also used to refer to political situations where one leader replaces another, only to be rapidly replaced in turn due to the instability of the governing system. - Wikipedia Join us for a jam!? Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.