Girl in a Coma is a rock band from San Antonio, Texas – land of puffy tacos, Lone Star Beer, and the place where Ozzy pissed on the Alamo.

High School best friends Jenn Alva and Phanie Diaz spent their Friday nights not at the football games, but in Phanie’s bedroom listening to albums and talking of the band they would someday form.

Meanwhile, perched quietly all along in the top bunk bed, Phanie’s little sister Nina, age 12. finally got the courage to ask the older girls to listen to a song she just wrote. She borrowed Phanie’s guitar (the girls had no idea Nina could even play), stood up straight, looked them in the eye, and promptly blew Jenn and Phanie away with what is recognized now as Nina’s powerful, expressive voice and amazing songwriting ability – mature beyond its years, unforgettable to anyone who hears her sing.

Girl in a Coma was formed that night, with Nina singing and playing guitar, Jenn on bass and Phanie on drums.

For the next five years the three girls practiced, wrote songs, and slowly built up a solid and loyal fan base though constant touring.

In 2006, Girl in a Coma caught the eye of two Los Angeles-based producers visiting San Antonio looking for talent for the pilot episode of a national documentary TV series on up and coming bands. They filmed the girls for three weeks, flew them to New York, and surprised the band with an introduction to one of the Girls’ idols, Joan Jett.

On camera, and much to the surprise of everyone involved, Joan and her long-time producing partner Kenny Laguna, were so impressed with the band that they asked the Girls to join Blackheart Records on the spot.

The Girls quickly set down the songs for their debut album, “Both Before I’m Gone” released May, 2007. Songwriter Nina says, “The title for the album comes from something James Dean once said, ‘Being an actor is hard. Being a man is even harder. I hope to be both before I’m done.’ I like to say, ‘Being a musician is hard. Being a human is even harder. I hope to be both before I’m gone.’”

The album ranges from faster tracks like Say to Road to Home, a hauntingly beautiful ballad that pays tribute to those many years of gigging on the road. Clumsy Sky, their first single from the album, won a 2007 Independent Music Award in the Song-Punk category, chosen by a panel of celebrity and industry judges including Snoop Dogg, Susan Tedeschi, Ray Davies, Suzanne Vega, and others. Additionally, the video for the song “Road to Home” made Logo TV's prestigious Click List.

Legendary producer Kenny Laguna supervised the final mix in New York. The album debuted on the Billboard Heatseekers chart at 23, debuted on iTunes at 21, and landed at 6 on the iTunes rock chart.

In addition to playing hundreds of their own headlining shows, Girl in a Coma has recently opened on a national tour with Tegan and Sara, dates on the True Colors Tour with Cyndi Lauper and the B-52s, an in-store appearance at Amoeba Records in Hollywood, the Vans Warped Tour and has opened for The Pogues, Social Distortion, the Toadies, Frank Black and the Catholics, theSTART, The Epoxies, The Eyeliners, Boz Boorer and The Bozmen, The Groovie Ghoulies, The Cruxshadows, Brassy and The Smoking Popes. The band achieved a lifelong dream when Morrissey picked the Girls to open for him in his tour of the East Coast. The following year in 2008, Morrissey invited them back to open for him on his tour of the UK and France.

The band has recently been back in the studio recording their second album for Blackheart Records, due out in mid 2009.