Deathray (1998–2007) was a band from Sacramento, California, formed by former Cake members Greg Brown and Victor Damiani, and Dana Gumbiner, a musician formerly of the Sacramento indie band Little Guilt Shrine.

After leaving Cake, Brown and bassist Victor Damiani met up with Gumbiner, who was playing solo shows under a variety of names, most notably The Micronauts. The three recruited multi-talented rock and jazz drummer James Neil and keyboardist Max Hart to form Deathray. After selling over 3,000 copies of their EP, Deathray was signed to Capricorn Records.

Their self-titled debut album was produced by Eric Valentine and released in 2000. While the album received critical praise, the band's future became murky during the collapse of Capricorn and a hastily-organized nationwide tour. After a long battle, Deathray was dropped from Capricorn, but regained control of the masters from their album, which they have since released on their own label, Doppler Records.

Shortly thereafter, Hart left the band to move to Los Angeles and form his own band, The High Speed Scene, which has since released its major-label debut on the Neptunes' imprint, Star-Trak Records.

James George Janos (born July 15, 1951), better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American statesman, actor, author, and former professional wrestler who served as the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003.

Ventura served as a Navy UDT during the Vietnam War. He later embarked on an 11-year professional wrestling career from 1975 to 1986, taking up the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He had a long tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as a performer and color commentator, and was inducted into the company's Hall of Fame in 2004. After leaving wrestling, Ventura began a successful film career, appearing in films such as 1987's Predator.

Ventura first entered politics as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1991 to 1995. He ran as the Reform Party candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running a campaign centered on grassroots events and unusual ads that implored citizens not to "vote for politics as usual". The campaign was successful, and Ventura served from January 4, 1999, to January 6, 2003, without running for a second term.

Raz Mesinai (born Reuel "Raz" Mesinai in Jerusalem in 1973) is a New York City-based composer, producer, musician, writer and visual artist. Mesinai has released 14 albums and numerous 12"s, EPs and remixes on several labels including Instinct, Asphodel, ROIR, and Island Records.

At the age of ten, he began experimenting with telephone answering machines and creating audio tape loops. Soon after, he discovered dub reggae and was exposed to contemporary composers such as Morton Feldman, John Cage, Edgar Varese, György Ligeti, Krzysztof Penderecki, Charles Ives and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He began composing music and experimenting with drum machines, tape loops, turntables and percussion. He also began writing and illustrating a graphic novel called Badawi. At the age of 20, Mesinai was DJing at various clubs around New York City including Save The Robots, Mars, Limelight, The Tunnel, The Sound Factory and Nylon. Around this time, he met John Ward and started the experimental dub duo Sub Dub, which later became influential in the illbient music scene. Mesinai abandoned the Badawi graphic novel and started doing recordings under that name, as a sound track to the story he was narrating.