Beaujolais

Chicago-based singer/songwriter and former frontman for the indie rock outfits Wolfie and the Like Young, J.A. Ziemba crafts intricate pop songs that blend the grime and grit of garage rock with the melodic disposition of the Beach Boys. Formed six months after Ziemba and his wife divorced, Beaujolais became first a sounding board and then an outlet for the myriad emotions that trailed in the wake of the separation. The resulting Love at Thirty, which chronicled the doomed relationship from its amiable beginnings to its inevitable conclusion, was released on Parasol Records in 2008. ~ James Christopher Monger