Music Style you'll have to figure it out...

Musical Influences Tom Petty, Velvet Underground, Yo La Tengo, The Schramms, The Replacements

Artist History The story of Toadmortons begins with with an ending. After being fortunate(?) enough to land a record deal with Warner Bros. and somehow managing to have an album released, Davis CA band Chance the Gardener came to an end in the summer of 1996. Following the break-up, singer/songwriter Steve Bryant began doing some solo recording with fellow Davisite and ex-Thin White Rope guitarist Roger Kunkel, who had a small home studio. After some discussion revolving around the desire to keep playing music in a band, Bryant and CTG bassist Greg Hain decided to produce an album with a more electric/acoustic feel, basically taking the recording work Bryant was already doing with Kunkel and turning up the gain a bit.After talking drummer Steve Edberg(then playing with Acme Rocket Quartet) into joining the fray as session player, work on the first Toadmortons album(released as "Beware Morton's Murder Mile" on Future Farmer Records) commenced in the fall of '96. After recording most of the basic tracks in two living rooms in Davis, work on the record was completed in the spring of '97 at Kunkel's studio in San Francisco and ended up consting around $500 to make.Around this time the band's rhythm section was formed with the addition of Jimmy Brasier on drums and Jack Payne on bass. The band got a couple of shows under it's belt before the release of "Murder Mile" in November, which ended up #5 most added to college radio in CMJ.Shortly after the release of "Murder Mile" the new line-up decided to set about working on some more recordings, spending time at Lowdown(R.I.P) in San Francisco with engineer Greg Freeman to record a couple of singles for Future Farmer followed by another session with Freeman at Tiny Telephone to record a second album. Drawing on influences as diverse as Tom Petty to the Velvet Underground, the sophomore effort(currently unreleased) makes the progression from the laid-back acoustic sound from "Murder Mile" to a richly textured collection of songs like "Glad You're Gone", a favorite of many who have seen and heard the band.

Group Members Steve Bryant: Vocals and GuitarGreg Hain: GuitarJack Payne: Bass,Backing Vocals, KeyboardJimmie Brasier: Drums and Percussion

Instruments 2 guitars, bass, drums, some keyboards and percussion

Albums "Beware Mortons Murder Mile", released on Future Farmer Records

Press Reviews Bertus.com reveiw for "Beware Mortons Murder Mile""Crawling country rock, driving around with a little Velvet Underground in tow. The songs shamble slowly forward, wavering like hoboes who have lost the will to live. That the album still sounds captivating, might well be the result of the excellent production by Roger Kunkel (ex-Thin White Rope), who also helps out on various keyboard and string instruments."

Location West Sacramento, CA - USA

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