Gram Rabbit
| Gram Rabbit | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Joshua Tree, California, United States |
| Genres | Indie rock, psychedelic rock, electropop, space rock,electronica |
| Years active | 2003–present (on hiatus since 2013) |
| Labels | Royal Order, Stinky Records |
| Website | gramrabbit |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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Gram Rabbit is an indie rock band based in Joshua Tree, California. The group consists of singer/keyboardist/bassist/guitarist Jesika von Rabbit, guitarist/bassist/programmer/singer Todd Rutherford, drummer Jason Gilbert and guitarist/producer Ethan Allen. Their musical style has been described as an amalgamation of psychedelic rock and electropop. Their fanbase is sometimes referred to as a self-styled "cult" called The Royal Order of Rabbits.
Jesika von Rabbit (birth name Jessica Leischow) grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She started learning the piano at 6 years old. Her mother was a singer in a hotel lounge band which mostly covered '80s pop songs by artists like Madonna, Pat Benatar and Joan Jett. The Von Rabbit name came from her appreciation of Jefferson Airplane song White Rabbit. Von Rabbit moved to Minneapolis when she was 18 where she started a band called the Porn Flakes, and she was also in a band called the Minx and after five years she eventually moved to Los Angeles in about 1996 to seek music collaborators of a like mind as herself.
Rutherford (birth name Todd Rutherford Johnson) grew up in Porterville, California, where he developed his skills on piano and guitar. His father was a professional jazz pianist. Rutherford moved to San Francisco to continue his musical dreams.
Von Rabbit and Rutherford first met in the summer of 2000 when invited to Joshua Tree by a mutual friend to start a band. The two musicians did not find the band proceedings to work for them, and each night they went to their rooms to work on their own material. While the two were in the legendary Room 8 of the Joshua Tree Inn (site of Gram Parsons death), Von Rabbit and Rutherford decided to work together and perform at Gram Fest, an annual festival honoring Gram Parsons at Joshua Tree in October. They intended to perform a set consisting exclusively of Gram Parsons covers, and named their side project Gram Rabbit as a combination of a nod to Gram Parsons and referencing Jesika von Rabbit's nom de plume. Although they failed to qualify for the festival due to their application being too late, they found that the worked well together. Rutherford played a demo he was working on, which eventually evolved into "Cowboys & Aliens", and they realized that their sounds worked well, a cosmic connection between the two. The two immediately quit that band that had brought them to Joshua Tree in order to pursue Gram Rabbit full time. The two were too broke to buy instruments needed for a band, so they headed back to Rutherford's hometown to live in a trailer across the street from Rutherford's grandparents horse and cattle ranch while working on new material until they returned to Joshua Tree two years later with a collection of new songs and a vision for the group's sound, philosophy and look. During this time, they were joined by bass player Travis Cline, a high-school friend of Rutherfords. The original band when complete consisted of singer/keyboardist/guitarist Jesika von Rabbit, guitarist/singer Todd Rutherford and bassist/sampler Travis Cline and moved back to Joshua Tree ready to play in 2003, playing shows in Silverlake and elsewhere under the name of the Gram Rabbit Experience. After performing various shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco, a band that they opened for, Singapore Sling, liked them enough to recommend them to their record label, Stinky Records. The label producers listened to them the next show, and signed Gram Rabbit. Gram Rabbit's shows frequently use desert scenes, and their songs and shows often use rabbit themes, helping to develop a fan-base that call themselves "The Royal Order of the Rabbits." The band sold rabbit ears and tossed some off the stage, so that fans could wear them. They even have fans who dress in full bunny costumes.
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