Two main influences on his early musical development were his sister’s participation in a church guitar group and his mother’s work as an astrologer.
[3] He then joined Uptown Bones, who were signed to the Black et Noir (fr) record label run by 1990s French punk band Les Thugs.
The title track featured a blend of psychedelia and country that presaged the band's later release, "Alone on the Moon," and the sound later developed by the Beachwood Sparks and Darla label-mates, My Morning Jacket.
In 2001 Darla released "Alone on the Moon," a limited edition, vinyl-only full-length album of three slow, mournful songs inspired by Neil Young's so-called Ditch Trilogy.
[10] The 2003 album "It’s a Lonely Planet," which received a 7.3 rating from online indie-rock arbiter Pitchfork, continued the theme of loneliness while featuring another radical shift in sound, combining the influences of Syd Barrett, T. Rex, and Hunky Dory-era David Bowie.
It has been stated that "it is no accident that [these] two…albums feature the words ‘alone’ and ‘lonely’ in their titles," suggesting that DiFuria's isolation from friends and his choice to exclude all other musicians gave rise to the recurring themes of alienation and delusion that pervaded his lyrics.
"[13][14] These releases mark the end of the band’s "lonely" period, with DiFuria once again writing uptempo songs with influences as disparate as Jimi Hendrix, the MC5, the Monkees, Stereolab, and Al Green.
The band returned to playing live during this period, with Tanner moving to guitar, longtime friend Chris Kubicek added on bass, and Jason Kourkounis of the Hot Snakes and Burning Brides on drums.
[16] The video contained a direct link for purchase on the iTunes Store and facilitated the band's greatest commercial success when Joey Sweeney embedded it and praised it on his weblog, Philebrity.com,[17] resulting in a spike in sales.
[23] In an early 2018 interview for Blurt (magazine), DiFuria promised "two albums...the next installment in the Pure Photonic Matter series [and] another, probably done around the same time...very long songs, sloppy, poppy, noisy, and primitive, with lots of jamming.