Mushroom (band)

Mushroom
Mushroom founder Pat Thomas, in 2011 at an academic pop music conference
Background information
Origin	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, alternative, experimental psychedelic, folk rock
Years active	1996–
Labels	4 Zero Records
Website	www.paisleypop.com/mushroom/home.htm
Members	Ned Doherty, Erik Pearson, Pat Thomas, Dave Brandt, Josh Pollock, Alison Faith Levy, Ralph Carney, Gram Connah, Tim Plowman, Dan Olmsted, Dave Mihaly, Matt Cunitz
Past members	Kevin Ayers, Eddie Gale, Michael Holt, Alec Palao, Kurt Statham

Mushroom is a musicians' collective based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The group's sound has been described as a "diverse and eclectic blend of jazz, space rock, R&B, electronic, ambient, Krautrock and folk music".

The group was founded in November 1996 by drummer Pat Thomas. Thomas is known for his work as a percussionist, record producer, writer, music critic, and editor of Ptolemaic Terrascope. His credits as a producer of reissue recordings include albums by Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Television, and for Omnivore Recordings, artists such as Game Theory. Thomas is the author of the book Listen, Whitey: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power, a 2012 work of African-American cultural history centering on the Black Panther Party, with a concurrently released CD and double LP recording of speeches and protest songs.

Mushroom released its first recording in 1997, a 12" single called "The Reeperbahn," described by critic Fred Mills in Magnet as a recording that "could fool a blindfolded test applicant into thinking its 25-minute psych blowout was some long lost Krautrock epic from the early '70s. Let the band's wah-wah guitar, feedback violin, volcanic bass, jazzbo percussion, and tape loops take you down the fabled motorway, never to return to the place you once knew." "The Reeperbahn" provided the basis for CDs released in 1998 in Holland and Germany.