Rainer Maria was an inie rock band originally from Madison, Wisconsin, later residing in Brooklyn, New York. Named after the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke, they formed in the late summer of 1995 and released five full length albums, a live DVD, numerous live recordings, and EPs. In its earlier days, the band had a dual male and female vocal line-up. The gender ambiguity of the name Rainer Maria paralleled this and was one of the reasons it was selected as the band's name.