This Busy Monster
US musical group
This Busy Monster was an American indie rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in the early 1990s. The band was composed of Christopher Possanza (vocals, guitar), Josh Rosenfeld (bass guitar), Jason Avinger (guitar, vocals) and Barrett Wilke (drums).
Known for their unconventional song structures, and eclectic instrumentation (including the use of a clarinet in many tracks), the band released three full-length albums, Like Icicles, The Curious Sofa and Fireworks, and released many EPs.
This Busy Monster are also notable for forming the record label Barsuk Records, named after Avinger and Possanza's dog, which can be heard barking in the track "Song 69". Initially created in 1994 to release the band's material during their success in the early 1990s, Barsuk Records later became a very successful label in its own right, signing and releasing material from numerous local and internationally-known artists.
History
This Busy Monster formed in 1992, taking their name from a poem written by E. E. Cummings, releasing their first tape, Ginger, in early 1992, before they had officially formed the band. With the release of Dark Hands in April 1993, the group was officially formed and began playing local shows. They performed numerous shows at local Seattle venues, playing with other local bands such as Sick and Wrong and The Thingmakers, and opening for the indie band Treepeople.
In 1994, the band released two singles, "Belated" in April with the help of Egg Studios and members of the band Posies, and "Swing Dream" was released in September. The band continued playing small venues with other local acts, often with members of the yet-to-be-formed Death Cab for Cutie.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7785629. VIAF identifies the subject as 136422786. The Library of Congress control number is no2007137325. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994, 1992 and 1993.
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This entry incorporates text from “This Busy Monster” 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.