Sammy (4)

Sammy was a bi-coastal indie rock group from the United States composed of Luke Wood (A&R man for Geffen Records, DreamWorks Records, and Interscope Records, onetime member of Girls Against Boys, currently president of Dr. Dre's Beats Audio company) in Los Angeles and Jesse Hartman (later of Laptop) in New York. The two were college friends. Regarding the band's name, Hartman told MTV (in November 1996): "It's my middle name, and a great restaurant on the Lower East Side. It's an old landmark Jewish steakhouse north of Delancey on Chrystie." The band was influenced by late-'70s punk and '80s new wave, including Television, Richard Hell, The Cars, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, and early-to-mid-'90s US indie rock trends. The latter earned them dismissive Pavement and Sonic Youth comparisons from music critics seeking facile descriptive shortcuts, though the band's songwriting stood strongly on its own. Active in the mid-1990s, the group broke up not long after the release of their second album, "Tales Of Great Neck Glory". Members of Sammy's touring band at various times between 1994-'96: Drums - Michael Corn Bass - Michael Galinsky from the NYC group Sleepyhead