Songs fueled by the squandered freedom of youth and the encroaching banality of adulthood. Songs about the fleeting moments that make life worthwhile and the lasting physical, emotional, and natural disasters that can obliterate the records of such events in an instant. After that what's left? What certifies our reality when memory is all that remains?

Richard Hunter-Rivera (guitar/vocals/synths), Jordan Heimer (bass/vocals), and Jessica Monday (keys/vocals), began their search for musical cohesion while attending Columbia University in the paranoia swept environs of Manhattan post 9/11. All three were artists in their own right, Richard a composer of experimental musique concrete, Jessica a talented multi-media visual artist, and Jordan a blossoming novelist/screenwriter. The three came together with Richard's younger brother Robert (guitar/vocals) to cultivate a decidedly lo-fi sound and recorded an EP, The Code is Obvious (self-released), in Richard's dorm room. Filled with synths, wind and string instruments, guitars, and drum machines, the EP combines youthful exuberance with academic constructiveness and was an ambitious first step in the development of the group's sound.

After graduating, the band faced the eternal hipster question: do it in New York...or do it elesewhere. They chose the latter, and in 2004 left for the friendlier, warmer climes of the South. Richard and Jessica moved to New Orleans, and Jordan to Austin, TX. The band stayed together loosely during the rest of 2004 and most of 2005. Then, during the summer of 2005, Richard, Jordan, and Jessica road-tripped throughout the southwest and once back home, began recording a new album in a sweltering attic in Shreveport, Louisiana, Monday’s hometown. Richard enlisted the help of Monday's brother, Bobby, to play drums. The recordings that ensued, though never fully released, were something of a turning point for the band, helping them to get comfortable incorporating their eager, almost naive experimental tendencies with a more traditional indie rock aesthetic, all the while picking up folk and americana influences that still deeply permeate the southern musical realm. Soon after that summer, Jordan moved to Los Angeles to pursue his screenwriting ambitions.

In September 2005 real life caught up with Richard and Jessica. The destruction and ensuing tumult brought on by Hurricane Katrina forced them to leave New Orleans. Hurting for money, faced with the prospect of getting full-time jobs, 401(k) accounts, and having babies, they quickly decided to join Jordan in southern California in order to start focusing on the band. Richard met Carlos Robles, originally from Mexicali, and the band finally had a permanent drummer. In October 2006, Richard entered a song-writing contest with one of the songs from those steamy summer 2005 recording sessions. The song "Andy" won the grand prize: two 8-hour recording sessions at Studio West in San Diego. By February 2007, the band was in the studio recording its first official EP, Or the Gun. Robert, who had decided to become an upstanding citizen of Durham, North Carolina, flew out to San Diego for the sessions and appears on the EP as a special guest guitarist and vocalist. The band changed its name to the catchier, but equally referential, The Moviegoers and released Or The Gun with Mangoose Records in March 2008.

Since July of 2008, The Moviegoers have been playing live in support of their burgeoning label Mangoose Records and their new EP. They debuted at San Diego's mainstay The Casbah to a warm welcome, supported local music at the San Diego North by North Park Festival, and introduced their live sound to Mexicali, Mexico. They have shared the stage with bands like Calico Horse, The Howls, Japanese Sunday, Swim Party, and Hotel St. George. In March 2009, the band released their second EP, Be a Man, and one month later played to a fantastic reception at The Mint in Los Angeles. They have a number of shows lined up in San Diego in the next few months, and plan to take their sound up and down the West Coast pretty soon. And then there's the full-length. Ahhh the full-length. It's coming.