Jean Leider has been using the stage name Jean Caffeine for many years. She was born in New York City in 1960. Her mother is Emily Leider, who has written a biography of Mae West and is reportedly working on one of Rudolph Valentino. Jean's family moved frequently in her early years, but eventually settled in the San Francisco by the time Jean was in 2nd grade.

She has been a musician since the late 1970s. In 1978, she played drums for Urge (an all girl punk band) in San Francisco. In 1980 she moved back to New York City and joined Pulsallama as their drummer. Pulsallama was led by performance artist Ann Magnuson, later of Bongwater. They had a few releases, but the greatest fame Pulsallama ever achieved was opening several shows for The Clash.

Jean next formed a short-lived all girl punk band named Clambake, which never had any official releases. Her bandmates were Cathy Crane, Liz Gall, and Holly George (now Holly George-Warren, of Rolling Stone fame).

Jean then moved to Austin, and formed Jean Caffeine's All Night Truckstop, a country band. The band consisted of mainstays Mick Buck and Dennis Ku, and included at times Seth Tiven, Amy Tiven, Mark Rubin, and Charlie Llewellin, as well as others. The band released a couple of albums.

In the 1990s, Jean went solo (sometimes accompanied by others). She performed folk, rock, and country, and released two albums Knocked Down 7 Times, Got Up 8 and Idee Fix. She also collaborated with filmmaker Richard Linklater, appearing in Slacker (1991) and helping with the animation for Waking Life (2001). In 2002 she moved to Thailand, for at least a year, to teach art.

Sources:
The Austin Chronicle
http://www.io.com/~jeancaf/

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