Rob Crow was the singer and guitarist of Heavy Vegetable, a San Diego band that showed promise with each of the four tracks on the EP A Bunch of Stuff (The Way Out Sound, 1993), particularly Doesn't Mean Shit, and then redefined progressive hardcore on The Amazing Undersea Adventures Of Aqua Kitty And Friends (Cargo, 1994). Instrumental dexterity and harmonic imagination turn brief songs like Couch, Lactose Adept and Black Suit into manifestos of a new genre. And Head Rush is even catchy.

Frisbie (Cargo, 1995) is more progressive than punk. The band plays its (28) songs with the seriousness of a jazz combo, although the songs maintain their frantic and angry identity. The album is still a machine-gun parade of short songs, but the lengthy Going Steady With The Limes seemed to open new horizons. Instead, the band dissolved.

Rob Crow recorded the "lo-fi" Lactose Adept (Cargo, 1996) along the same style and then Spotlight On Optiganally Yours (Cargo, 1997), a bizarre experiment with a keyboard called "optigan" in collaboration with Pea Hix. The two would give it a follow-up, again credited to Optiganally Yours (although replacing the optigan with other bizarre instruments), on Presents Exclusively Talentmaker (Absolutely Kosher, 2000), occasionally pop (Held), but more often brooding (Song For America), with nods at new age music (the sounds of nature on Oar) and to Morricone's soundtracks (The Last Ride Of the Pony Express).

In between, Crow formed the acoustic trio Thingy with another Vegetable veteran, singer Elea Tenuta. The EP Staring Contest (Headhunter, 1996) contains a handful of wonderful ditties like Pony and Cutest Baby, and the album Songs About Angels, Evil, And Running Around On Fire (Cargo, 1997) contains 24 brief tunes, including the anthemic Destroy All Music. The childish madness of Half Japanese wed to the melancholy soulfulness of Young Marble Giants.

Thingy expanded to a quartet for the full-length To The Innocent (Absolutely Kosher, 1999), and the rhythm section of bassist Jason Soares and drummer Mario Rubalcaba (who used to be in legendary punk outfit Clikatat Ikatowi of Orchestrated and Conducted fame) often steals the show from the singers. The comatose tone of the singers, that evokes boredom and desolation the way Lydia Lunch used to, contrasts with the progressive-rock acrobatics of the players (Ballpoint Pen). The album marks Crow's return to Heavy Vegetable form.

This Is Pinback (Ace Fu, 1999) is a collaboration between Crow and Three Mile Pilot's Armistead Burwell Smith IV Tripoli, one of Crow's artistic peaks, is a somnolent lullaby that repeats in a hypnotic manner employing vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Renaissance song. The subdued, dreamy tone persists throughout the album, affecting the the anemic plantation blues Charborg, the tenderly psychotic Chaos Engine (with the counterpoint of a vintage "acid" organ and a discrete drum machine), the half-song mantra of Loro, the martial cabaret-like philosophical poem Rousseau, the relatively propulsive and catchy Crutch (whose refrain takes three minutes to soar) and the closer Montaigne, by far the most complex architecture, an austere Joni Mitchell-esque piano ballad with wavering gospel organ and a lengthy loose jamming coda.

Drummer Cameron Jones joined Pinback in 2000 and the trio released the single Loro (ace-fu, 2000) and the EP Some Voices (Tree, 2000), whose title-track became one of their live staples.

Pinback returned with Blue Screen Like (Ace Fu, 2001), a confused work that, again, mixes post-rock, psychedelic-rock and folk-rock but hardly coins a personal language out of that fusion style, and with the EP Some Voices (Absolutely Kosher, 2002), an appendix to that album. Their artistic zenith was in fact reached by another EP, Offcell (Absolutely Kosher, 2003), boasting "electronic" arrangements, thanks to the soothingly melodic and hypnotic Microtonic Wave (reminiscent of the new wave of the 1970s, from Television to Police) the post-rock ballad Victorious D (an alternation of tender and vibrant moods), the soulful and elegant B (reminiscent of vocal groups of the Sixties such as the Hollies) and the eleven-minute mini-opera Grey Machine, blending psychedelic trance and soul singing.

Rob Crow's talent is undeniable, but he seems determined to scatter it and waste it in the most grotesque manner. As the number of projects increases (Physics, Alpha Males, Goblin Cock, Advertising), Crow's focus decreases (a simple physical law). His second solo album My Room Is A Mess (Absolutely Kosher, 2003) sounds like an even more confused summary of all the other projects. It rarely coalesces and often sounds unfinished. The catchier tunes (Some Things, Over the Summer, A Subtle Kiss) are Brit-pop for kids who don't have the money to buy import CDs, and the "experiments" are as experimental as Britney Spears' B-sides.

Physics is documented on Physics2 (1998), 2.7.98 (2001), 1999-11-21 (2002) and ³ (2018).

Pinback finally delivered gutsy songs on Summer In Abaddon (Touch & Go, 2004), that almost sounds like the the rebellious alter-ego of the depressed debut album, replete with melodic progressions and hard riffs. Non Photo-Blue (the lead track) sounds like an amateurish version of Police, and This Red Book sounds like a twisted cover of a song from Beatles' Abbey Road, and the slicker 3x0 evokes the prog-pop of the Electric Light Orchestra, but elsewhere Pinback concocts charming structures, whispering Syracuse over irregular drumming, neoclassical piano and almost Middle-eastern strumming, weaving the tale of Fortress around jangling guitars and mellow folk vocals, whining AFK over disjointed guitar and drums, crafting the emotional crescendo of 3x0 via a subtle interplay of piano, vocals, drums and guitar, However, even then, they are not exactly revolutionary. Pinback's music does better as background music than as individual songs. The mood prevails on the music: the album is a jelly of eccentric retro-refrains delivered in a cold spleen.

Rob Crow's side projects continued to multiply. Goblin Cock released Bagged And Boarded (Absolutely Kosher, 2005), his loudest power-pop record yet, followed by Come with Me If You Want to Live (2008).

The Ladies, a collaboration with Hella's drummer Zach Hill, released They Mean Us (Temporary Residence, 2006), mostly devoted to Mandatory Psycho-Freakout. Crow had already worked with Zach Hill on the two Holy Smokes albums, Masculine Drugs and Talk To Your Kids About the Gangs (2006).

Pinback's Nautical Antiques (Ace Fu, 2006) is a collection of b-sides and rarities.

Rob Crow's third solo album, Living Well (Temporary Residence, 2007), continued to dilute material (as it happens with every prolific artist whose name is not Leonardo or Mozart), but simple tunes such as I Hate You evoke the best moments of Pinback in a way that the previous solo albums failed to do.

Other Men was almost a reunion of Heavy Vegetables as it featured Crow, drummer Manolo Turner and bassist Travis Nelson. Their first album, Despite the fact that Crow's best material was scattered among so many different releases, Wake Up Swimming (Robcore, 2007), managed to assemble enough vigor from the players and overcome the weak material.

Pinback definitely came out of its post-rock shyness on Autumn of the Seraphs (Touch & Go, 2007). By now Pinback excelled at both penning facile ditties such as From Nothing to Nowhere (their most frenzied song yet) or Subbing for Eden or Off by 50 and at sculpting slightly angular songs such as the Devil You Know (that swings between hard-blues and light-pop styles), or Blue Harvest (typical of their mesmerizing vocal progressions, discontinuities and harmonies, against an insistent Police-like riff), or the ballad Good to Sea, or the syncopated Barnes, or the piano elegy Bouqet, or Walters (that starts as a soft ballads and ends as a tense boogie), that don't quite fit any definition. Each is just another disorienting twist in an album of twisted ideas.

Crow then decided to delve into heavy metal with a new band, Goblin Cock, that released Bagged And Boarded (2005) and Come With Me If You Want to Live (Robcore, 2009).

Rob Crow's solo album He Thinks He's People (2011) boasts the usual second-rate refrains (like Prepare to Be Mined) but truly excels at dark humor (Locking Seth Putnam in Hot Topic, I'd Like to Be There).

Pinback's Sherman (2012) was another notable addition to Crow's canon, included on Information Retrieved (2012).

Thingy returned with Morbid Curiosity (2018). Optiganally Yours returned with O.Y. in Hi-Fi (2018)

Crow also launched the satirical project Anal Trump that released That Makes Me Smart! (2016), To All the Broads I've Nailed Before (2017), If You Thought Six Million Jews Was A Lot Of People, You Should've Seen My Inauguration (2017), If You Wanted To Qualify For Health Insurance, Then Maybe You Shouldn't Have Gotten Raped? (2017), and Make America Say Merry Christmas Again (2017).

Gloomy Place debuted with You're Doomed - Be Nice (2016), Third Act Problems with The Sun Setting Over the Argosy Book Store (2018), Snotnose with A Distraction (2018).

Goblin Cock is also documented on Necronomidonkeykongimicon (2016) and Roses on the Piano (2018).

Byre debuted with the five-song EP Here In Dead Lights (2018).

Crow and John Reis concocted Plosivs (2022).