Consisting of Elliott Smith (guitar and vocals), Neil Gust (guitar and vocals), Brandt Peterson (bass; later replaced by Sam Coomes, frontman of Quasi) and Tony Lash (drums), they were known for their well-crafted lyrics and songs often featuring the juxtaposition of melancholic and cheery words and melodies.

In 1987, while both of them were attending classes at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Neil Gust and Elliott Smith met and formed a band, Swimming Jesus.

[2] The two were prolific: besides Swimming Jesus, Gust and Smith had another pre-Heatmiser college band, featuring "a friend named Dylan and two others",[3] and recorded "stupid and embarrassing" music on rented four-track recorders with "poetry on top", recited by a "Southern Californian stoner-photographer guy" friend.

[8] Lash and Smith had bonded over a mutual love of Rush, and outside of their high school band class, they began to work out "insanely complicated songs" together, recording after school with Eric Hedford, future Dandy Warhols drummer.

With Heatmiser in need of a bassist, a high school friend suggested Brandt Peterson to fill the position.

"[6] Smith convinced him to join Heatmiser, at least until their February 14, 1992 live debut at Portland's X-Ray Cafe.

Over the next few years, Heatmiser was a regular act at local Portland venues like the X-Ray Cafe, screenprinting shop Hand Prints, and La Luna, whose cheap, packed Monday night concerts were a hub for the city's twenty-something underground social scene.

[6] Brandt Peterson played bass on the albums Dead Air and Cop and Speeder, the Yellow No.

[10] Peterson left the band in August 1994 and was replaced by Sam Coomes, a friend of Smith's.

[6][11] Coomes has a modest view of his contributions to the album: "There's two levels of playing for me [on Mic City Sons]," he added, laughing.

"[6] After Peterson's departure, the band "struggled [on tour] to draw the same crowds they'd built in Portland.

Asked by Under The Radar's Marcus Kagler why he thought that was, Smith explained: "Oh, I was around 20 or 19, and a lot of straight guys were... you know, just having kinds of conversations that I couldn’t really relate to.

[6]Lash also recalled his memories of the band's tense relationship while recording Mic City Sons, and their eventual breakup: At the time, it was hard to sort through it all.

"It was kind of ridiculous to carry it up to a certain point and then drop the ball or the bomb, like quitting the band right after we had signed to Virgin," recalled Smith.

It turned out to be a fucked-up situation because they said the reason they had signed Heatmiser was that they'd been hoping this [the breakup] would happen-or something to that effect.

Gust spent time in the house [the band had rented for recording] alone, learning to work the studio; as engineer, Lash felt he'd become an 'obstacle' to Smith, who wanted to bring in Beck producers Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock to shepherd the sessions.

Mic City Sons was released on a smaller Virgin sister label, Caroline, and slipped into the world quietly.

"[6] Going on unemployment after losing a bakery side-job had given Smith more time to devote to recording, which also shifted his focus away from Heatmiser and toward his own solo music endeavors.

Coomes carried on as half of Quasi, as well as working as a guest musician and producer for other bands, including Built to Spill, Sleater-Kinney, and Bugskull.

We showed up, tracked the basics for two songs in one day, then Jim [Talstra] and John [Moen] packed up and headed back to Portland.

Elliott finished the mix long after I returned to Portland in order to keep my job, but I didn't hear it until after he died.

[17]Heatmiser was labeled as a "homocore" or "queercore" band by the mainstream press, because of the themes espoused in the songs of the openly gay Gust.

[2]Gust stated that touring behind their first album, Dead Air, meant that Heatmiser "had to be this much more muscular, single-minded kind of band than we really felt any of us were interested in being.

At La Luna, someone had this idea to charge one dollar at the door to see three local bands every Monday night.

So every Monday night the bands were pretty much guaranteed at least $300—which was huge in 1993—and the shows had Heatmiser, Crackerbash, Pond, Hazel, The Dandy Warhols.

The bands would get their cash and, more importantly, they would have the experience of playing in front of 1,000 people who knew their songs.

Reporter Jeff Stark's SF Weekly article about a date on that tour, a December 1, 1996 show at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill club, recalled Smith as "part charismatic rock star, part bar-band regular, oozing nonchalant confidence".

I suppose I should have known that any band named after the claymation villain in the dated The Year Without a Santa Claus would have a sense of humor.

[11]Later in his career, Smith believed that his blatant dismissal of the band in interviews for his solo albums hurt Neil Gust and led to discontent between them.

[12] Gust has "the fondest memories" of the band, and he has stated that "[his] view of the legacy of Heatmiser is those records.