The early roots of Valve date back to the early 1980's when Shawn Riley & Ben Weible started their first punk band, Plan 17, in Madison, Wisconsin. Coming out of the same Madison skate/punk scene that bred Killdozer & the Tarbabies, Plan 17 soon added Paul Schmidt on Drums and Shawn’s brother Brian on Bass and became Knucklehead. Plan 17 and Knucklehead both played frequently around Madison, Plan 17 even opening for Husker Du on the Huskers first national tour. In 1985 Knucklehead released Knucklehead I, a mix of speedy & melodic punk and metal produced by Butch Vig at Smart Studios (where Nirvana would record Nevermind). In the next few years the Knuckleheads lives followed different paths until Ben & Paul moved to Jackson Hole, WY, where Shawn was living as a ski bum, to start a new band. Eventually the threesome headed to San Francisco in 1989 (2 weeks before the earthquake).

After a few lineup changes, the band gelled with singer Erik Litzen and bassist Chris Rucker and became Love Runs Red. Their sound was dark and complex reflecting a newfound interest in bands like Chameleons UK and Fields of the Nephilim. Erik's deep, haunting voice balanced delicately against spacious intertwining melodic guitars. Love Runs Red performed frequently in the San Francisco club scene and eventually caught the ear of producer Daniel Presley (Spain, Faith No More, Breeders, Jewel). In the summer of 1994 they began recording what was originally intended to be the band's first release. Instead of releasing the project independently, they began shopping songs from the sessions as demos.

During this time the band was dramatically refining their style, crafting songs which were more concise and accessible while still maintaining key elements of their original sound. The result was a more polished, pop-oriented sound and a new name, Valve. In early 1997, Michael Been of The Call was recruited by Presley to record a new 3 song demo. (All 3 Ashes, Revolution & 2/13 would all make it onto Parallel You). Been, who was also working with The Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club at the time helped create the stripped down demo that would get the attention of North Carolina based MoodFood Records. Mood food, an upstart indy, was off to a great start after releasing Whiskeytown's debut effort (Ryan Adam's first band). In January 1999, VALVE signed with the label and began production of their forthcoming release, Parallel You. After working with Been the band also traveled to LA to support the Call.

Valve recorded Parallel You in July of 1999 during a 2 week lockout at San Francisco's Brilliant Studios, where Presley was the lead engineer. The sessions were long and productive, new songs such as Summa seemingly came out of nowhere and older songs such as Delta took on new life. To get the word out Valve played the CMJ New Music Festival in New York City in September with fellow moodfood bands The Knobs & Satellite Inn ( the same night Hurricane Floyd hit NYC ).

In April of 2000 Parallel You hit stores and entered the CMJ charts at 17 on the most added list. In support Valve toured the East Coast and continued to play frequently around the Bay Area. Unfortunately around this time Moodfood began to experience problems with their distribution network which in turn forced the small label out of business. Rather than search for a new label, the band decided to pursue other goals such as their long standing dream of being the first band to climb the tallest peaks on all 7 continents. After playing a farewell show at The Paradise Lounge on election night 2000 Valve was last seen Feb 13, 2001 on Mt. Kilimanjaro...