question: Are Shipping News and Versus both American bands who play in their own genre of rock?
answer: yes
context: Title: Jason Behr
  Passage: Jason Behr (born December 30, 1973 ) is an American film and television actor.  He first starred in the American television series "Roswell", for which he was twice nominated for a Saturn Award, followed by roles in the films "The Shipping News" and the American remake of the Japanese horror film "The Grudge".  Behr has also had a series of guest appearances in various television shows like "Step by Step", "The Profiler", "7th Heaven", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "JAG" and had a recurring role in the American television series "Dawson's Creek".
  Title: The Shipping News
  Passage: The Shipping News is a novel by American author E. Annie Proulx, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1993.  It won both the Pulitzer Prize and the U.S. National Book Award, as well as other awards.  It was adapted as a film of the same name, released in 2001.
  Title: Versus (band)
  Passage: Versus is an American indie rock band formed in 1990 by Richard Baluyut, Fontaine Toups, and Edward Baluyut in New York City.  Richard and Fontaine were to remain the two core members throughout the band's history.  The band was noted for their marriage of indie pop songwriting and vocal harmonies to the "loud-soft" dynamics of grunge and alternative rock.  They were also noted for their proficient and disciplined musicianship and for their credo of "meat, sports, and rock", none of which had much currency in the early 1990s American indie scene.  They named themselves after the Mission of Burma album "Vs."
  Title: Jeff Mueller
  Passage: Jeff Mueller is an American vocalist and guitarist best known as a member of the math rock bands Rodan, Shipping News and June of 44.  His bands have been critically recognized for being key forerunners in the development of post-rock, math rock and post-hardcore.  His only solo, titled "Fold and Perish", was released in 1999 by Monitor Records.  He currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
  Title: G.a.s. Drummers
  Passage: G.a.s. Drummers was a melodic hardcore band formed in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain at the end of 1997 by three teenagers who stood out from their other students due to their colourful hair dies and their taste in the california punk rock bands such as Bad Religion, Operation Ivy, NOFX, Lagwagon, The Descendents etc.  Original members from other small local bands Dani Llamas (guitar and vocals), Pakomoto (Bass and vocals) and Rafa Camison (Drums) started playing together and composing their own music and after one year of sending demos around the country they got put as the opening act for Swedish Punk Rock band Randy on their Spanish tour.  A tour that took the band through the whole country helping a lot of Spanish kids discover that there were actually Spanish bands capable of sounding as good as some of their favorite American bands.  This lead immediately the band to sign to a young record label called Slide Chorus Records a young emerging record label from Madrid which would start releasing albums for other Spanish Punk Rock bands.  This first release titled Proud To Be Nothing hit the streets at the end of 1999 and was presented on their first European tour which covered Spain, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands amongst Spanish punk rock legend[P.P.M.
  Title: Shipping News
  Passage: Shipping News is an American post-rock/post-hardcore band.  The group formed in the fall of 1996 when members Jason Noble and Jeff Mueller, who were both in Rodan, collaborated to create music for the Chicago-based syndicated National Public Radio program "This American Life".  Kyle Crabtree was later recruited as drummer which completed the original lineup.  In 2004, Todd Cook, former member of Parlour, The For Carnation, and the reunited Slint, was recruited as bass player.
  Title: The Shipping News (film)
  Passage: The Shipping News is a 2001 drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx.
  Title: Nigel Eaton
  Passage: Nigel Eaton is an English hurdy-gurdy player.  He originally played the piano and cello but switched to the hurdy-gurdy in 1981 when his father, Christopher Eaton, began making them.  He was in the bands Blowzabella, Whirling Pope Joan with Julie Murphy and The Duellists with Cliff Stapleton and Chris Walshaw.  He has released two solo albums - "The Music of the Hurdy-Gurdy" (1987) and "Pandemonium" (2002) and has been featured on other recordings by artists including Jimmy Page and Robert Plant with whom he toured between end of 1994 and early 1996, also Scott Walker, Shelleyan Orphan, Heidi Berry,  Gary Kemp, Carl Davies, with whom he performed Abel Gances' Napoleon, Blue Aeroplanes, Martin Simpson, Moya Brennan, Afro Celt Sound System's "Release" (a current edexcel Music GCSE curriculum piece) and many works by Loreena McKennitt.  Eaton's film work as a session musician has included "Robin Hood", "The Shipping News", "Kingdom of Heaven", "Aliens", "Mansfield Park", "Tulip Fever" and as an extra in the films "On Chesil Beach" and "Darkest Hour".
  Title: Lloyd's Coffee House
  Passage: Lloyd's Coffee House was a coffee shop in London opened by Edward Lloyd (c. 1648–15 February 1713) originally on Tower Street, in 1686.  The establishment was a popular place for sailors, merchants and shipowners, and Lloyd catered to them with reliable shipping news.  The shipping industry community frequented the place to discuss maritime insurance, shipbroking and foreign trade.  The dealing that took place led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyd's of London, Lloyd's Register and several related shipping and insurance businesses.
  Title: TradeWinds (newspaper)
  Passage: TradeWinds is the world's biggest shipping news service, publishing both online news and a printed weekly newspaper, that covers shipping as a global industry.  TradeWinds is owned by NHST Media Group and is headquartered in Oslo.
citations: Shipping News Versus (band)