Music Style Indie acoustic/electric rock

Musical Influences Elliot Smith, the Beatles, Ben Lee, Sunny Day Real Estate, Weezer, Ben Folds Five

Artist History The Moontracers were originally a 5 piece project started in High School among several mutual friends. The original line up consisted of Errol Tisdale on drums, Daniel Leavengood on bass, Stephen Miller on lead guitar, Mitchell Gruich on guitar and Hillary Hinton as lead vocals. There was never an official name for everyone wanted to call the project something different. Daniel initially wrote lyrics for a song called "mental confusion" that Mitchell put music to. Then the two approached the others about contributing musical ideas for the song. One thing lead to another and by the third or fourth practice there was three songs floating around. Eventually the afterschool practices in the auditorium lead up to a little performance in the backyard of Mitchell's uncle. With just the 6 or so songs (only two having the full 5 piece play on) the quintet ceased practices soon after that performance. Stephen went on to be a physicist or some kind of scientist. Hillary was last heard to be doing plays in New York. Daniel is studying to be a band director at the University of Southern Mississippi. Errol is majoring in Network Administration and Mitchell graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in Graphic Design that he now uses to freelance out to local musicians. After highschool, Mitchell and Daniel picked back up the project in junior college with Errol still the designated percussionist. This time Matt Collins was approached with filling in the bass position. A couple of months later Matt arranged to move to Texas, so then Mitchell switched from guitar to bass. Daniel was rythm and lead vocals. The two once again approached a mutual friend for filling in the lead position. Enter Jamie Bounds. Jamie was just as big a Weezer fan as Mitchell and Daniel so the musical inspiration just fit. Ironically the songs the band wrote never came close to sounding anything like Weezer, although they did have the oppurtunity to cover the "sweater song" at the junior college talent show. Later on Jamie was replaced by Steve Morris on guitar as Jamie switched to violin. The band was first suggested to be called Tracy and the Moon Rabbits. This title was altered to the Moontracers and "Tracy and the Moon Rabbits" became a more memorable song by the band. The Moontracers played a couple of birthday shows, a few punk shows and alot of coffeehouse shows. They were able to make a 5 song demo with "Tracy and the Moon Rabbits" as the bonus track. Towards the end of the band's existence Mitchell left and was replaced on bass by Steve who was replaced by a guy named Josh. Shortly thereafter the new lineup disbanded infinitely. At about the same time the demo came out Mitchell started a solo project on acoustic guitar called Anne Lida. He still performs his screamy indie-rock songs today as Anne Lida. Daniel also released a solo project in college with the help of Mitchell recording and producing the 5 song demo entitled "River Dreams." Daniel did play one show as "the Last Moontracer" with Anne Lida (a.k.a. Mitchell) at a underground coffeehouse in Hattiesburg. Jamie now works for NASA as a researcher. Errol and Daniel are currently working on their degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Group Members Daniel Leavengood (guitar/bass, vocals), Jamie Bounds (guitar, violin, vocals), Errol Tisdale (drums, back-up vocals), Mitchell Gruich (bass, guitar, back-up vocals), Steve Morris (lead, bass)

Albums the Moontracers (self titled e.p.)

Location biloxi, mississippi - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).