Chic, dance-friendly, and shot through with mischievous sex appeal, Bay Area indie rockers the Lovemakers earned a dedicated local following in the early 2000s thanks in no small part to their sultry image. Lisa Light and Scott Blonde met in Oakland, CA, in 2002 via Blonde's manager, whom Light was dating. Light ditched the manager for Blonde and joined his band, Applesaucer, before the year was out. The chemistry between the two was evidently too much for the band to handle, however, and the two were purportedly kicked out of Applesaucer for making out during band practice. Unabashed, the two musicians dubbed themselves the Lovemakers (taken from a Japanese porn flick called The Weird Lovemakers) and struck out on their own. Light and Blonde recruited a keyboardist, Jason Proctor, and got to work on a homemade, self-titled EP. Released in 2003, the disc became quite popular in the Oakland area, selling out at local record stores and earning the group an avid following at its live shows. Their EP began to get local radio play, studio reps started showing up at the band's gigs, and soon enough the group was snatched up by Interscope. Things were going well for the band, but rock stardom put a strain on Light and Blonde's relationship; they broke up only weeks before they were scheduled to record their debut album. Undaunted, the group headed into the studio and recorded Times of Romance, a sweaty, glittery, disco-laden affair that hit stores in late summer 2005. Chief among the album's offerings was a single called "Shake That Ass," an indie re-imagining of 50 Cent's "Shake That Ass Girl." The group recruited a drummer, Ken Hard (formerly of Oasis), and moved to a new label, Fuzz, Inc., over the course of the next two years. Their sophomore EP, Misery Loves Company, came out in 2007. ~ Margaret Reges