The Seldon Plan

The Seldon Plan is a post-rock pop band from Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It consists of Michael Nestor on guitars, keyboards and vocals and David Hirner on bass. Since 2008, Nestor and Hirner have used a rotating core of fill-in musicians to put out records. Although The Seldon Plan is primarily associated with the indie rock scene in the Northeast U.S., they have had national print, radio and television exposure and are featured in popular iPhone applications.

While primarily playing indie rock that is reminiscent of The Weakerthans, The Feelies, Nada Surf and Camera Obscura an aspect of their sound has been compared to that of emo. Though recent records have increasingly been influenced by both indie pop and traditional pop.

The band was founded in 2003 by original guitarist Bobby Landle and bassist Dave Hirner. Landle chose the name for the band because of a lifelong fascination with Isaac Asimov. In late 2003 Hirner and Landle met Michael Nestor while he was working on a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Maryland School of Medicine via an ad placed on a local music website. The band played a few shows using a drum machine and sometimes with fill-in drummer Austin Stahl. The earliest Seldon Plan demos feature Stahl on drums. While playing shows, the trio met drummer Mike Landavere, a traditional jazz drummer, and decided to take the band more seriously allowing Stahl to work on other projects like The Beechfields Record Label, which released the first Seldon Plan EP.

The Seldon Plan started off by playing in non-traditional venues in and around Baltimore like art galleries and DIY spaces. Many of their early shows were part of the DIY renaissance that began in the Baltimore music scene around 2004. During the early history of the band, they gained notoriety by inviting artists, poets, and filmmakers to display their work at their concerts.

With the line-up of Landle, Landavere, Hirner and Nestor, The Seldon Plan took on a busy tour schedule during 2005-2007 releasing two critically acclaimed full-length records and playing shows with Explosions in the Sky, The Stills, Now It's Overhead, The Octopus Project and Matt Pond PA. In August 2008 the band announced the addition of a new drummer and a new guitarist as both Mike Landavere (drums) and Bobby Landle (guitars and vocals) left the band. The Seldon Plan was subsequently highlighted along with Joan as Policewoman and Jason Mraz in the December, 2008 edition of the Music Alive! magazine.

In April 2009, to announce the reformation of the band, and promote their new record, Lost and Found and Lost, the band offered a limited-time-only free download of the title track. The single was immediately highlighted by The Baltimore Sun in a multimedia showcase and Arts & Life piece discussing creativity as an outlet for economic woes.