Bentham the Band

Bentham is the musical alter ego of Ben Paulos, a Bay Area singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. After the usual trumpet in the school band, picking up guitar in high school, then jazz, Balkan and West African music in college, his first major band was Laughing Academy, in Boston, circa 1988-1993. That was an art rock trio plus singer that recorded three albums (but released one and a half), played New England and New York clubs, and garnered national airplay before folding. Laughing Academy members went on to play in Sugar, the Willard Grant Conspiracy, and Transmissionary Six. Bentham was launched in Boston, then continued in Madison, Wisconsin in the late 1990s, in a lineup featuring Ken Keeley, John Driscoll, and Rick Cavalieri. It moved to San Francisco, where the three album releases were finished and released: The Mauve Decade, Miss Wisconsin, and Pacific.