Produced by Armistead Burwell Smith IV, Pinbacks' debut album came together after both Rob Crow and Armistead (a.k.a. Zach) collaborated after a hiatus from their current projects. Crow, who quickly moved from his first band, Heavy Vegetable, worked on his quickly established group with the release of Stating Contest in 1996. At the same time, Smith and his band, Three Mile Pilot, released a self-titled album in 1998 and unofficially broke up until their last album releases in 2000 (Another Desert, Another Sea). In the downtime between bands in 1998, Crow and Smith merged to create Pinback, while still keeping ties with their previous endeavors.

Blue Screen Life
Released – October 23, 2001

Their well-anticipated album, Blue Screen Life, which followed up their debut, impressed fans just as well as their debut did. Releasing one of their most popular tracks “Penelope”, Pinback left little room for any blemish and stuck with the soothing hipster guitars and poppy drums they began with. The voice of Rob Crow couldn’t be ignored either. Not that he was the next Pavarotti, but each puzzle piece of what the band was, fit together perfectly.

SV was a nice junction of what Pinback had previously done with the exception of some experimental sounds and vocal effects evident in track two, “Some Voices”. SV was released in the blink of an eye with only four total tracks meant really to keep Pinback fans in tact as other projects were looming over the heads of Smith and Crow. Their next full LP release would be in another two years with both artists, but they let their fans know they were still churning out new material in the meantime.

Offcell EP
Released – June 10, 2003

Crow and Smith had done quite a good deal of experimentation up to this point. Whether it was with other bands or just developing their own sound, this album is more off-kilter than any of their other recordings. With the exception of the 11-minute song “Grey-Machine”, this EP isn’t fantastic by any means, but bridged their old style into their next LP release.

SIA is quite possibly Pinback’s most popular and widely acclaimed album. This is mostly due to their poppy single “Fortress”, which was featured on a variety of shows, including the then popular O.C. SIA was the introduction for many fans who still didn’t know who Pinback was putting them in a position many California bands find themselves in: separated from the East coast and missing out on half of their audience. This album broke the doors open for them.

Nautical Antiques
Released – September 5, 2006

NA served as a ‘best of’ album, but at the same time brought back some of the bands favorite songs, which were sparsely known up to this point since they were released on some of their earliest EPs and foreign releases. Included in this rare collection was “Anti-Hu”, originally recorded and released in 2001 on the Penelope single, and again included in 2001’s Japanese Release of Blue Screen Life.