mary timony is the twenty-something boston native who has played
guitar, keyboards and perhaps most notably sang for such bands as
helium,
autoclave, mind science of the mind, green 4, and recently on her solo album,
mountains.
mary timony attended boston university and graduated with a degree in english. she learned how to play classical guitar in her teen years, when she attended an arts-oriented boston-area magnet high school. upon attending college, however, she decided to scrap her classical training and start over from rock and roll scratch. mary and christina billotte of slint were in the all-girl post punk Autoclave with a bunch of other girls.
timony was then asked to join helium, which then consisted of brian dunton (bass) and shawn king devlin (drums) of Dumptruck. Mary was the band's second vocalist, replacing none other than Mary Lou Lord. The trio released a bunch of 7-inches and the EP Pirate Prude. then brian, the bass player, left and was replaced by ash bowie, one of the masterminds behind indie rock giants Polvo. mary and ash co-wrote the songs for their next two full-length LP's- The Dirt of Luck and 1997's The Magic City.
Helium is frequently listed as a prog rock or indie band whose feminist lyrics are tempered and made oblique and individual by an striking amount of influence by fantasy writer Tolkien.
Timony next recorded a solo album with the help of longtime friend Christina Files on the drums. bowie also helped on drum programming. currently timony is hard at work in her new band Green 4 which is playing some shows around the new york or something. there's not a lot of info on this project yet, but it's bound to be awesome if spearheaded by the considerably talented timony.