Brian McBride (musician)
American musician

Brian Edward McBride (July 6, 1970 – August 25, 2023) was an American musician best known as one half of the ambient duo Stars of the Lid. He also released two solo albums, When The Detail Lost Its Freedom and The Effective Disconnect, on Kranky using his own name. McBride moved to Austin, Texas, in 1990 where he met Adam Wiltzie, forming Stars of the Lid in the early 1990s. He also worked with the now defunct Pilot Ships. McBride was also a member of the duo Bell Gardens.
McBride lived in Los Angeles. He was an active member of the policy debate community. In 2009, Brian teamed up with musician Kenneth James Gibson to form the band Bell Gardens. Their first EP Hangups Need Company was released on their own imprint Failed Better in 2010. Southern Records released their first LP Full Sundown Assembly in 2012 and Rocket Girl released their second LP Slow Dawns For Lost Conclusions in 2014.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Brian McBride (musician)” is american musician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Brian, McBride and musician, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4964644. VIAF identifies the subject as 315084940. The Library of Congress control number is no2015019240. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 2023, 1990 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Brian McBride (musician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.