#poundsign# are an indie pop group whose drowsy, introspective tunes give a nod to Galaxie 500, The Cure, early R.E.M. and The Field Mice. Stephen Vesecky, Alicia Vanden Heuvel (who would go on to become a core member of The Aislers Set), Ravi Sreekakula, and Becky Barron, formed the group in 1993, having met one year earlier at UC-Santa Cruz. "We were all friends and would drive around late at night and hang out at Ferrell's Donuts," Vanden Heuvel explained in an interview with the 'zine Movers and Shakers. "And then we just started practicing music together." #poundsign#'s first 7" single, "The Almondy Many," was released on the Ann Arbor, MI-based label Fantastic Records in 1996. Another single, "Michigan," came out the following year on Belmondo Discs. Fantastic released #poundsign#'s debut self-recorded full-length, Wavelength, in the spring of 1998. Jaime Knight (The Guild League) was brought into the fold for the group's second full-length album, Underneath the Marquee, also self-recorded, on Fantastic three years later. The band went on hiatus soon after the disc was released, and #poundsign#'s original members busied themselves with other projects: Vesecky went on to form the likeminded pop group Strega; Barron, with Scrabbel, Dressy Bessy, and Kids On A Crime Spree; and Vanden Heuvel with The Aislers Set and Magic Trick ~ TiVo Staff, Rovi