Absentee

Absentee are a band from London in the UK, signed to Memphis Industries. They are Dan Michaelson (vocals/guitar), Melinda Bronstein (vocals, keyboards, melodica, glockenspiel), Babak Ganjei (guitar/lap steel), Laurie Earle (bass) and Che Albrighton (drums).
The band have had two previous major releases. Donkey Stock in 2005 was a six track EP, which helped get the band noticed. In 2006, the band released a full length album called Schmotime, which was well received by the music press, including a 7.1 Pitchfork rating. Much was made of the up-beat nature of the songs, in stark contrast to the morbid nature of the lyrics - ‘There’s a body in a car somewhere’ - for example.
The album «Schmotime» was produced by James Ford, of Arctic Monkeys and Mystery Jets fame.
Any free time has been spent touring with the likes of Magic Numbers, Brakes, Broken Family Band, Micah p Hinson, Bloc Party and Silver Jews.
When not recording and touring with Absentee, all the band members have side projects. Singer Dan has Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, Babak, Melinda and Laurie have Wet paint and Melinda has The Bronsteins.