The Mayflies USA were a Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...

, North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

-based power pop

Power pop

Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are...

 rock band signed to Yep Roc Records

Yep Roc Records

Yep Roc Records is an independent International record label based in Haw River, North Carolina and owned by Redeye Distribution . The label has put out albums by artists like The Go-Betweens, The Fleshtones, Gang of Four, The Reverend Horton Heat, and The Minus 5, as well as the work of important...

. The band was a classic example of power pop

Power pop

Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are...

, as their songs featured catchy melodies, vocal harmonies, and prominent guitar riffs. Their style was considered derivative of older bands such as The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

, Big Star, and also more contemporary groups like Teenage Fanclub

Teenage Fanclub

Teenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake , Raymond McGinley , Gerard Love and Francis MacDonald , with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love...

 and Velvet Crush

Velvet Crush

Velvet Crush is a power pop band from Rhode Island that achieved prominence in indie-rock circles in the early- and mid-1990s. The band broke up in 1996 but re-formed in 1998 and have continued to record, releasing their most recent album in 2004...

.

The band released their debut EP in 1997, and their next three albums were released by Yep Roc. North Carolina producer Chris Stamey

Chris Stamey

Chris Stamey is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. After a stint playing with Alex Chilton, and a brief partnering with Mitch Easter under the name Sneakers, he formed The dB's, whose stewardship he would share with Peter Holsapple.In 1977 in New York, Chris founded the...

 (formerly of the The dB's

The dB's

The dB's are a jangle pop/power pop group who came into prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s. The bandmembers were Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Will Rigby and Gene Holder, all of whom were from Winston-Salem, North Carolina...

, and credited by the band as the "fifth" Mayfly) produced their first two records for Yep Roc, Summertown and The Pity List.

Keith Cleversley, who has produced The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...

 and Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev is an American alternative rock group, that formed in the late 1980s in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker , Jonathan Donahue , Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a...

, worked on their 2002 record Walking in a Straight Line. The band's albums garnered favorable reviews in publications such as The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, Spin

Spin (magazine)

Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

, The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

, Allmusic and The Boston Phoenix; however they broke up shortly after Walking in a Straight Line. In 2007 and 2009, the band reunited for some shows.

Matt McMichaels, one of the band's three singer-songwriters said in a 2000 interview, "I think the reason the four of us formed this band was that we were the only four people in Chapel Hill who still loved pop songs from the '60s and '70s. We were outcasts." He claims that the band were influenced by Big Star and Television

Television (band)

Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...

 more than the Beatles and Beach Boys.

Discography

Year	Title	Label
1997	The Mayflies USA	Clancy
1999	Summertown	Yep Roc
2000	The Pity List	Yep Roc
2002	Walking in a Straight Line	Yep Roc