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Joan As Police Woman
Biography
Described by Joan Wasser as "punk rock R&B" and "American soul music," Joan as Police Woman combine two of the biggest influences on her music: classic soul such as Al Green and Nina Simone and the rougher, experimental sounds of Sonic Youth and Bad Brains. The mix never sounds contrived, thanks to the intuitive interplay of Wasser's vocals, violins, and guitar, Rainy Orteca's bass, and Ben Perowsky's percussion.

Wasser, who has played with everyone from the Scissor Sisters to Lou Reed, began playing violin at age eight while attending grade school in Norwalk, CT. At Boston University, she studied violin with Yuri Mazurkevich and also played with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, and expanded her horizons to rock with local acts including Hot Trix (which featured Autoclave member and Helium founder Mary Timony) and the Dambuilders, which went on to national success. Wasser also played with Timony and Shudder to Think's Nathan Larson in Mind Science of the Mind, which released their self-titled album in 1996. The following year, the Dambuilders disbanded and Wasser's boyfriend, Jeff Buckley, drowned accidentally in Memphis, TN. Wasser kept on making music, collaborating with the Grifters' Dave Shouse and Buckley's former guitarist Michael Tighe in Those B**tard Souls in the late '90s, and then with Tighe in Black Beetle, which folded in the early 2000s.
Selected Discography