manishevitz was formed by adam busch (ex-the curious digit) in virginia in the late 1990s. their debut album was released on jagjaguwar records in 1999, and after this busch and guitarist via nuon moved to chicago. their sophomore lp, "rollover", released in 2000, featured chicago musicians ryan hembrey, nate lepine, joe adamik of califone, and fred longberg-holm. their 2002 ep "private lines" features a cover of the roxy music song "2hb". in 2003, their third full-length, "city life", was issued on jagjaguwar, and in 2007, "east to east" followed on catbird.