Artist description We serve up a healthy dose of psychedelic and blues rock with a bit of reggae and blugrass to round out the musical meal.

Music Style Psychedelic/Americana Jam Rock

Musical Influences Roots Rock, Blues, Bluegrass, Reggae, Experimental Rock

Similar Artists Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Traffic, Jimmy Cliff

Artist History The band formed in 1992 in Palo Alto, CA under the name "Equinox," then "Defunkt," and then finally "Grasshoppers." The original members were Mike Goodin: keyboards&vocals, Olaf Folta:lead guitar&vocals, Steve Cambouris: bass, Rob Kilner: Drums (Equinox, Defunkt), Bill Weber: drums (Grasshoppers), and Ben Copeland: rhythm guitar&bass. Brian Vandemark was the original sound engineer. Some of the songs that are still played from these early days include "Southern Cross Railroad, Protest, 'Got me a girl, Cryin', and Sittin' on a Fence." Grasshoppers disbanded in 1994, but was reformed in San Francisco in 1998 under the name "Cephalopod" with members Mike Goodin, Jeff Zajak, Robbie Planting, Brian Vandemark, and Daryl Stacks. Jshon Thomas soon joined the band in early 1999. The name was changed to "Schwerve" in mid 1999 and finally "Grasshoppers" again in early 2000. Kamran Sherafat stood-in as lead guitar at some shows in 1999 and recorded solos on our "3 Songs" demo in 2000. Daryl left the band in late 1999 and after that we played without a drummer until late 2000, when Rod Castano joined. We recorded our five song "Hoppin' Out" CD in a remote studio in Graton, CA in early 2001. Rod played with the band through the summer of 2001. Both Rod and Jeff left the band by Fall 2001, and soon afterwards Rob Kilner and Lance Case joined. Lance and Rob have brought new and tremendous energy to the band in the past year. In October 2002 we moved into the "Randolph Studio" in San Francisco, which is our current practice space and is also where we recorded our latest album, Chirps, in June 2002.

Group Members Mike Goodin: Vocals and keyboards Brian Vandemark: Vocals and Bass Robbie Planting: Acoustic guitar Jshon Thomas: Violin Rob Kilner: Drums Lance Case: Electric Guitar

Instruments Acoustic and electric guitars, violin, bass, keyboards, throats

Albums '3 songs'( 2000), 'Hoppin-Out' (2001), 'Chirps' (2002)

Press Reviews Rob Evans of Trystero Productions says "they're a rip-roarin' psychedelic hayride"

Additional Info We have a private FTP site for downloading complete live shows in mp3 format. Use the 'contact' link to request a login.

Location San Francisco, CA - USA

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