Tommy Keene graduated in 1976 from Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland, which was also the alma mater of fellow musician Nils Lofgren, who went on to play and record with Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Keene played drums in one version of Lofgren’s early bands. Keene then attended the University of Maryland. Tommy Keene first received critical acclaim with his pioneering pop band The Razz, who released several local independent singles. His 1984 EP Places That Are Gone became one of the year’s top selling independent releases. The EP garnered a four-star review in Rolling Stone, and was voted the #1 EP in the following year’s Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll. Keene recorded and released numerous albums on such labels as Dolphin, Geffen and Matador Records. He worked with producers T-Bone Burnett, Don Dixon, and R. Walt Vincent. He continued to record and tour and released an album with Robert Pollard, formerly of Guided by Voices, as ‘The Keene Brothers.’ Keene also played guitar on the Goo Goo Dolls’ hit song, “Broadway”, on their 1998 album, Dizzy Up The Girl. In 2011, Keene released his ninth original studio album, Behind The Parade, with Second Motion Records. This was the fourth release working with Second Motion’s founder Stephen Judge. Judge had released Keene’s 2010 two disc retrospective Tommy Keene: You Hear Me and his previous release, Crashing The Ether. Keene’s 2006 release Eleven Thirty Records was released while Judge was A&R Director and General Manager at Redeye Distribution. Tommy Keene died of natural causes in his sleep on November 22, 2017. He was 59 years old.