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In the dirty South Loop in Chicago's financial district, the 6th floor in an old office building turned apartments, Conrad Merced, an art school student, started to write and record music in his bedroom for his new project, Shoplifter.


The band name “Shoplifter” is derived from a short story from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. "Most of the people I've talked to think the name Shoplifter is a Morrissey/Smiths reference and although I'm strongly inspired by Morrissey, that wasn't it's original root."
It started off as a personal and fun project to kill time, and after months of not taking the project seriously, Conrad's friends and professors strongly encouraged him to release the music to the public. As of Winter of 2004, Conrad joined forces with Neal Christyson (a capri smoking, wine tasting, english major from Lincoln Park) and Joe Schafer (a brit-pop and soccer loving journalism major from Wicker Park). They took their love of New Wave, Electron...