The initial lineup of the band consisted of vocalist/guitarist Chris Pearson, guitarist/vocalist Tim Shea, guitarist/bassist Can Keskin, bassist Steve Rzucidlo, and drummer Craig Duhamel.
The fivesome recorded a demo EP titled The Penguin Tape in 1987, and they self-distributed it throughout the local Boston music scene.
Their first commercialized release was a split-single with God's Acre (formed by drummer Brian St. Clair) on the label Toxic Shock Records in early 1990.
[3] Towards the end of the year, Green Magnet School's full-length debut album was released overseas, entitled Blood Music.
[4] Blood Music received praise from various outlets, and the band was compared favorably to Killing Joke, Sonic Youth, Gang of Four, Dinosaur Jr., among others.
[2][6] The band then released a split-single with Six Finger Satellite on Sub Pop (titled The Declaration of Techno-Colonial Independence), which featured the non-album track "Twelve Gauge" and the Neil Young cover "Don't Cry".
By the following year, Sub Pop had lost interest in the band due to their expansive yet scattered roster of artists, and Green Magnet School parted ways with the label as a result.