Green Magnet School was founded in the city of
Framingham, Massachusetts. 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. Towards the end of the year, Green Magnet School's full-length debut album was released overseas, entitled
Blood Music. It was given a proper release in the United States by February 1992. The album's name was taken from the
1985 novel of the same name by
Greg Bear.
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. In the summer of 1992, Rzucidlo departed from the band, and he was replaced on bass by Stephen Smith. 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. In early 1993, bassist Smith left the band, and he was replaced by Jeff Iwanicki. Green Magnet School regrouped in the studio during the summer of 1993 with producer John Wood. The result was
Revisionist, which was released on the independent label Sonic Bubblegum. Around the same time, they also appeared at the
CMJ New Music Marathon festival. The band then became mostly inactive throughout 1994, but they reconvened in the studio by the end of the year. Once again with Wood on production, Green Magnet School released their final album in the summer of 1995,
Illuminatus. The album peaked at No. 91 on the CMJ Top 150 chart in July of that year, and it lingered in the chart for a few weeks overall. The band also went on a tour to support the album as they played in regions that they couldn't visit beforehand. By 1997, Green Magnet School disbanded as their members pursued other interests. In 2014, Green Magnet School's
Blood Music album was specifically singled out in the book
Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981–1996 by Andre Earles. Also in 2014, the band reunited for a one-off show which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Boston radio station
WMBR. The lineup consisted of Shea, Pearson, Keskin, and Hamilton, in addition to Mike Davis on bass. Around the same time, the band's music was officially uploaded digitally for the first time, which included their long out-of-print demo cassette from 1987,
The Penguin Tape. ==Members==