A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he played with three Louisville hardcore and hardcore-inflected bands in his early career. He got his start as guitarist for Maurice, but he first recorded with Solution Unknown. He rose to prominence, however, for work with the post-rock band Slint. Since its breakup, he has seldom held positions in other bands for very long, moving from one to the other quite often. As a result he has contributed to many lineups, playing and recording with Will Oldham, The For Carnation, Tortoise, Stereolab, Royal Trux, King Kong, Bush League, Zwan, and Peggy Honeywell.
He has also released music as a solo artist using various monikers, as Aerial M, M, and most notably, Papa M. Among his many 7" and splits with various bands, he has released (as Aerial M) 1997's Aerial M, and (as Papa M) 1999's Live from a Shark Cage, 2001's Whatever, Mortal, and 2003's Hole of Burning Alms.
In February and March 2005 he joined his old bandmates from Slint, Britt Walford and Brian McMahan, for a reunion tour, and in April released his first solo album not bearing a pseudonym, simply entitled Pajo. The follow up to Pajo, entitled 1968, was released in August 2006.
Around the middle of 2005, he helped to form the band Dead Child, with Todd Cook (from Shipping News, Retsin, The For Carnation, and Aerial M--and who also played guitar on the 2005 Slint reunion tour), Michael McMahan (from The For Carnation, Starkiller, and Phantom Family Halo--and who also joined Slint on the reunion tour), and Tony Bailey (from Anomoanon, The Party Girls, Verktum, and Aerial M).
In 2009, Pajo joined the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the tour for their third album, It's Blitz!.
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