iSound

Renminbi first came together in early 2003. In the months prior, Danger, Giant Ranger! guitarist Lisa Liu had been looking to start up a side project to serve as a vehicle for a collection of hard-to-categorize songs she'd been writing that didn't seem to suit DGR. Inspired by a trip to China she had just taken, Lisa already had the name Renminbi in mind as she began searching for a bandmate. Her first objective was to find a drummer who could mesh well with her complicated sense of rhythm and work around her unusual song structures. In February 2003, she found those qualities in Jenny Johnson, a classical composer and percussionist with a rock 'n' roll heart. Initially performing only raw instrumentals, Renminbi decided it was missing something and called in soundscape-obsessed SMV to fill out some of the tunes with keyboard and vocals. After a handful of rehearsals, the band played its first gig on February 27, 2003. Receiving lots of positive feedback and feeling good about the...