Concurrent with his work in the emo band Karate, in mid-1993 singer/guitarist Geoff Farina formed the Boston-based lo-fi folk-pop duo the Secret Stars with best friend Jodi Buonanno. Imagined more as an ongoing media project than a traditional band, they self-released their eponymous debut cassette in 1994, re-releasing the material on the Shrimper label the following year. Farina spent much of the mid-1990s focusing on Karate, and as a result no new Secret Stars material was forthcoming prior to the 1998 release of the LP Genealogies; a seven-inch, "Abner Louima," appeared later that same year. ~ Jason Ankeny