Nothing Painted Blue

Nothing Painted Blue was an American indie rock band in the 1990s led by talented songwriter Franklin Bruno. Bruno and drummer Kyle Brodie were the only constant members, as the remainder of the line-up

Nothing Painted Blue was an American indie rock band in the 1990s led by talented songwriter Franklin Bruno. Bruno and drummer Kyle Brodie were the only constant members, as the remainder of the line-up underwent a number of changes throughout the band's existence. They formed in 1987 in Los Angeles and released their debut LP, A Baby, A Blanket, A Packet of Seeds, in 1990.

The band sometimes spelled their name as "N∅thing Painted Blue" (abbreviated "∅PB"), a use of notation for the empty set in mathematics. References to mathematics were common in their songwriting and iconography; for example, their 1998 record was named after the Monte Carlo method. The cover of the same album depicts pins scattered randomly on a surface, an apparent reference to a probablistic method for approximating pi. Their album Placeholders features a song called Can't f(x), an abuse of mathematical notation for the song's refrain, "can't function".