[5] Having completed multiple tours of the United States and trips to Canada, Europe and Japan throughout their career,[2] Bracket released Live in a Dive (2002) which gathered some of the band's best-known material into one performance.
In the late 1980s while attending El Molino High in Forestville, California, friends Marty Gregori and Larry Tinney bonded over a mutual admiration for rock band AC/DC and began teaching each other guitar chords.
During these initial stages, the group played cover songs by Tom Petty, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Rolling Stones, with its earliest performances appearing at weddings, bar mitzvahs and high school parties.
[1] Their first album 924 Forestville St. was released in May 1994 through Caroline Records, a label that had previously issued debuts by a wide range of alternative rock acts including Hole, the Smashing Pumpkins, Wax and White Zombie.
The album's title is likely a tongue-in-cheek reference combining the name of longtime punk rock establishment 924 Gilman Street with the band's nearby hometown of Forestville.
[4] While augmenting their sound with wurlitzer, vintage guitar effects and percussive toys, help was enlisted from studio musicians (including a string quartet, horn section, keyboardist and pedal steel player) whose subtle contributions added depth to the recordings.
While preparing for its next album, Bracket toured the United States with a variety of acts including NOFX, SNFU, Tilt, the Smoking Popes, MxPx and Everclear.
With its unconventional chord progressions and harmonized vocals on full display, the album featured noticeably polished production as compared to earlier outings.
Album track "Sour" exhibited the band's keen sense of power pop and was later included on the Physical Fatness compilation in November of that year.
Novelty Forever would be the last album to include guitarist Larry Tinney who met his second wife following a tour stop in Washington, eventually leaving Bracket.
During this transitional period, Gregori was approached by his younger cousin Angelo Celli who presented the band with a self-recorded 4-track cassette of himself playing Bracket songs on guitar while both singing and providing vocal harmonies to them.
[5][10] Bracket returned to Motor Studios with Greene reprising his role as producer and completed When All Else Fails, their second full-length for Fat Wreck Chords and fifth album overall, released in May 2000.
While the band continued to mature beyond its pop punk contemporaries,[3] their album seamlessly picked up where the expansive Novelty Forever left off and included a return appearance from Fat Mike who co-wrote and supplied guitar on "No Brainer".
[5] Despite generally positive reviews upon release, Bracket felt the two-week recording session for When All Else Fails was rushed and lacked many vocal embellishments they had planned yet didn't get a chance to incorporate.
[6] The leadoff track "Everyone Is Telling Me I'll Never Win, If I Fall in Love with a Girl From Marin" was featured on More RPM's Than Floyd on a Scooter, a free sampler used to promote releases from Fat and its subsidiaries Honest Don's and Pink and Black.
The insert for Live in a Dive contained a comic book story written by Bracket with artwork from John Estes, Kevin Cross and Rick Remender.
[1] While pushing the boundaries further on their unique brand of pop punk, Bracket completed an album that combined lush vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Beach Boys with the straightforward songwriting characteristics of the Descendents.
That same year the trio began performing locally, with sets that consisted of original material, Bracket tracks and occasional cover songs by the Beatles, Nirvana, NOFX and Tenacious D. Before work on the next Bracket album eventually commenced, the Good Life Crisis had released songs through its MySpace and YouTube pages but a physical release was never issued under this moniker.
[4] They also released the rarities collection Rare Cuts (in three separate installments) which included compilation tracks, B-sides, demo recordings and alternate versions of songs spanning their entire catalog.