The edgy Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based alt-country trio Red Star Belgrade formed when onetime rock critic Bill Curry grew tired of simply writing about music and decided to begin making his own. After enlisting his wife Graham Harris-Curry on drums and Greg Paul on bass, the singer/guitarist founded Red Star Belgrade (named for a European soccer franchise), which debuted in 1995 with the controversial single "Union, S.C.," a song composed from the perspective of Susan Smith, the infamous housewife who drowned her children in a lake. The group's caustic full-length debut Where the Sun Doesn't Shine followed in 1996; Telescope followed in the spring of 2000. ~ Jason Ankeny