Tea Leaf Green

Tea Leaf Green
Tea Leaf Green performing at the Granada Theater Dallas, Texas, March 11, 2010
Background information
Origin	San Francisco, California, US
Genres	Rock, jam
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Surfdog
Website	www.tealeafgreen.com
Members	Scott Rager Josh Clark Trevor Garrod Eric DiBerardino Cochrane McMillan
Past members	Ben Chambers Reed Mathis

Tea Leaf Green (TLG) is a five-piece jam band from San Francisco Bay Area, comprising Josh Clark (guitar and vocals), Trevor Garrod (keyboards, vocals, guitar, and harmonica), Scott Rager (drums and percussion), Cochrane McMillan (percussion), and Eric DiBerardino.

Tea Leaf Green began in the fall of 1996, when Scott Rager met Ben Chambers on the campus of San Francisco State University (SFSU). Chambers was the group's original bass player but left in 2007; he is featured on the band's first four albums. Rager and Chambers began playing together, practicing in Chambers's bedroom in a back house off Church Street in San Francisco's Castro District. In early 1997, Clark, a childhood friend of Rager, moved from the Los Angeles area to San Francisco and became the third member of the band. Garrod, also a SFSU student, joined soon after.

In the late 1990s, Tea Leaf Green began gigging throughout San Francisco, becoming the de facto house band at the Elbo Room for a period in 1999. The band's first album, eponymously titled, was released that same year and featured twelve original compositions, included songs such as "Professor's Blues," "Asphalt Funk," and "California," all of which remained part of the band's live repertoire for years. Over time, the band pared down the all-inclusive sound featured on the first release and formed a more focused style of songwriting inspired by Garrod's Dylanesque musings and Clark's unabashed, frenetic soloing.

In the early part of the 2000s, Tea Leaf Green was an integral member of a burgeoning rock music revitalization in San Francisco that also featured bands such as Animal Liberation Orchestra and New Monsoon. As music fans from multiple corners of the country became aware of the resurgence of a brand of music focused on improvisation and experimentation, Tea Leaf Green built momentum and gained support with an ever-widening audience. Within San Francisco, buoyed by a word-of-mouth buzz, the band sold out shows at Slim's and, eventually, at the Great American Music Hall.

In 2001, Tea Leaf Green released its second album, Midnight on the Reservoir, following up with a live release from the Great American Music Hall, unofficially referred to as the "Green Album" because of its all-green cover. Midnight on the Reservoir highlighted the group’s rapid evolution from its previous release, offering a heightened element of psychedelia, bombastic rock numbers, and a cohesive, thematic lyrical approach. Garrod unearthed childhood memories for the mysterious opening track "Midnight on the Reservoir" and the ebullient sing-along "Papa's in the Backroom," while the band ripped through instrumental jams such as "Panspermic De-evolution" and "Hot Dog." Clark referred to this effort as the band's "party album."