Gram Rabbit

Artist Information

Biography

"Dry and tough as mule jerky, sexy as a swayed hip, the music weaves elements of electro-dance, Byrd's-era country rock, inner-space jazz, and gnomic meditations in the manner of Spiritualized and Pink Floyd into a sound that's unaffectedly homey, profoundly ambitious, and frankly revolutionary."
-Ron Garmon, LA CityBeat


Gram Rabbit's highly anticipated fourth record, Miracles & Metaphors, is now complete and plans for a spring or release are underway. Produced by Ethan Allen(The 88, Luscious Jackson, Patti Griffin)who decided he loved the Rabbit so much he now joins them live on guitar, Miracles & Metaphors takes the listener on an epic journey of beauty and depth that has become all but extinct in today's market.

Founded in 2004 by Jesika von Rabbit and Todd Rutherford in the desert landscape of Joshua Tree, California Gram Rabbit quickly gained attention for their offbeat styles as well as their decidedly bent take on modern music. Using beats, twangy guitars, programmed samples, a healthy dose of mind-altering lyrical illusion and super-charged sexual energy, Gram Rabbit were hailed as best new LA Band in 2005 at the LA Weekly Music Awards.

Momentum built as the band sold out West Coast clubs and earned rave reviews in monthly, daily and International publications. Their rapid ascent from outsiders to the top of the L.A. club scene could be attributed to the dichotomy of their audience. Well-heeled hipsters in low-slung jean and ironic t-shirts could be found next to actress Scarlet Johansson. Uberfan John Cusack rounded out his iTunes celebrity playlist with music from the band. It's easy to see how the bands classy image combined with it's dirty sound was a lethal combination for their divergent audience.

When the band hopped the pond for some shows in the United Kingdom, the toast of Southern California made quite an impression on the tight-knit world of the London press with write ups in Time Out London, Dazed and Confused, The Independent and others. They were then invited to perform at the Wireless Festival in London sharing the stage with Basement Jaxx, M.I.A and LCD Soundsystem.

Gram Rabbit's must-see live show, their fantastic sound and their geographic desirability helped secure a much sought after gig at the desert music festival, Coachella. The trade magazine Daily Variety commented: Sunday's Coachella fest got off to a slow start with unimpressive performances by hyped artists like Fiery Furnaces and M.I.A. (with the definite exception of the acid-trip costume show by local, sexy psych-rockers Gram Rabbit.)

The adulation was not lost on Hollywood. A bevy of licensing opportunities were presented to band landing spots on CBS's "CSI", MTV's "The Assistant"' with Andy Dick, NBC's "Life" and "Dateline", Fox's "Head Cases", ABC's "10 Things I hate About You", Bravos "Long Way Round", STARZ' "Crash", and FX's "Sons of Anarchy" to name a few.

With Miracles and Metaphors complete, Gram Rabbit is set to embark on the next phase of their career. Their fans are set for more hare-raising gigs, vital new additions to the live band and a sound that will surely get their asses moving and minds bending. Beatrix Potter couldn't have written it better herself.

Instrumentation

Jesika von Rabbit- Vocals, Keys, Guitar
Todd Rutherford- Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Programming
Ethan Allen- Guitar, Programming
Hayden Scott- Drums

Discography

LP's to Date:

"Music to Start a Cult to" 2004 Stinky Records
"Cultivation" 2005 Stinky Records
"RadioAngel & the RobotBeat" 2007 Royal Order
"Miracles & Metaphors" Coming soon!

Official Website

http://www.gramrabbit.com

Links

• www.myspace.com/gramrabbit

Audio

• Candy Flip(Miracles & Metaphors)
  Listen  
• Falling Debris(Miracles & Metaphors)
  Listen  
• Off With Your Head(Miracles & Metaphors)
  Listen  
• Wheels In Motion(Miracles & Metaphors)
  Listen  
• Hyena(Miracles & Metaphors)
  Listen  
• Devil's Playground(Music to Start A Cult to)
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Candy Flip
• Falling Debris
• Off With Your Head
• Wheels In Motion
• Hyena

Video

Video for "Candyflip"

Photo Gallery

Press

• Gram Rabbit Press Quotes [+ Show ]
  

  WINNER of The LA WEEKLY’s annual award, “Best New Artist” “This up –and-coming group out of Josh...WINNER of The LA WEEKLY’s annual award, “Best New Artist”
  
  “This up –and-coming group out of Joshua Tree is a weird – and promising – amalgam. They appear ready to claim a place in the line of self-reliant, independent-minded artists who germinated in Southern California’s deserts, from Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart in the 1960’s to Queens of the Stone Age in the ‘90s.”
  - Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times
  
  “Dry and tough as mule jerky, sexy as a swayed hip, the music weaves elements of electro-dance, Byrd’s-era country rock, inner-space jazz, and gnomic meditations in the manner of Spiritualized and Pink Floyd into a sound that’s unaffectedly homey, profoundly ambitious, and frankly revolutionary.”
  -Ron Garmon, LA CityBeat
  
  “…this trio have managed such a deft application of eccentricity that in less than two years they’ve bunny-hopped from shadowy obscurity to a comfortable seat atop a big sticky pile of rock & roll candy…Having won themselves critical accolades aplenty and a spot on the upcoming Coachella ordeal, the swift and pleasingly strange Rabbit ascension continues to defy any foreseeable limitations”
  - Jonny Whitside LA WEEKLY
  
  “Their gimlet third eye seems to take it all in, scatter the socio-cultural data into a cosmic sifter and glean some remarkably peculiar, cutting perspectives.”
  - Jonny Whitside LA WEEKLY
  
  “Gram Rabbit is the face of 21st century glam; denser than Scissor Sisters and more fun than Ladytron. If everyone who heard Roxy Music got these sorts of ideas, the world would be a vastly better place.”
  -Chris Henderson The Houston Press
  
  “The brotherhood of the hare is ready to spread across the nation … and the world.”
  -Paige Newman MSNBC.com
  
  “Through three albums, including 2007’s “Radio Angel & the RobotBeat,” Gram Rabbit has carved out a Garbage-meets-Spaghetti Western pastiche the elevates high desert mysticism almost to the occult.”
  -Kevin Bronson Los Angeles Times
  
  
  “The genre-benders – We shout out to the musicians who don’t fit neatly into compartments, who stretch boundaries, who make us hyoenate. So here’s to albums we loved by Gram Rabbit (electro-twang-psychedila).”
  - Kevin Bronson Buzz Bands Year End Column Los Angeles Times
  
  “…Gram Rabbit take Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s formula for sexy psychedelic country to the next level.  Hot ‘n’ weird.” 
   - Dazed and Confused (UK)
  
  “What a find this quirky Joshua Tree-o has turned out to be...Think Portishead on horseback”
  - Derek Adams -Time Out London
  
  “Fronted by a woman who calls herself Jesika von Rabbit, teeters uncertain on 4-inch heels and exponentially enhances her allure with obstinate sullenness, Gram Rabbit offer up in spectacle exactly what they do in sound: music that reminds you of everything from eerie desert twilights to Carter-family country and then again sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard; a little twang, a lot of machine noise, some vaguely trancelike slowed-down synth effects, some fine psycho-pop lyrics about Jesus and cowboys and unrepentant goofiness.”
   - Judith Lewis LA WEEKLY
  
  SXSW Best In Show “Three bands blew me away this trip – Gram Rabbit a desert trance band that is like Garbage and the B-52’s with serious content.”
  - Brad Kava San Jose Mercury News
  
  “One of the year’s best debuts. Gram Rabbit may have very well cut a cult classic.”
  - Frank Correia - Radio & Records
  
  “On the bitchin’ “Cowboy Up” …Jesika von Rabbit groans the pole-dancing anthem of the year.”
  - Jeanne Fury - Seattle Weekly
  
  “Music to Start a Cult To is always fun and never boring, but you may feel the need to bathe after listening to it”
  - Gene Armstrong – Tucson Weekly
  
  “Gram Rabbit who really come up with something special”
  - Tim Perry – Independent UK
  
  “The pride of Joshua Tree…the magic of Gram Rabbit is spreading rapidly.”
  - Bruce Fessier – The Desert Sun
  
  “Sunday’s Coachella fest got off to a slow start with unimpressive performances by hyped artists like Fiery Furnaces and M.I.A. (with the definitive exception of the acid-trip costume show by local, sexy psych-rockers Gram Rabbit).”
  - Jeff Miller, Variety
  
  “Don’t Miss: Gram Rabbit. The desert dwellers’ starry –eyed psychedelia and soaring space rock are grounded by a twisted sense of humor and a twangy sincerity.”
  - Richard Cromelin - LA Times Coachella Feature
  
  Perhaps it was the desert air…And then everyone donned bunny ears in anticipation of Gram Rabbit leading off on the main stage. They played loud and clear for nearly an hour, incorporating some gritty rock notes with one thumper of a bass drum. Some waddled. Some bobbled. And most jumped when lead singer Jesika von Rabbit sauntered on stage in a white lycra suit. Glamorous.
  - Evan Pondel – Daily News
  
  “Gram Rabbit astounded a couple thousand people with their spacey, absurdist electro-rock.”  “One of the best ways to gauge audience reaction at the Coachella is to see what’s selling at Virgin Megastore in the middle of the field. Just before midnight I was told recent albums by Nine Inch Nails, Boom Bip, Immortal Technique, and the Joshua Tree band Gram Rabbit had sold out.”
  - Bruce Fessier – The Desert Sun
  
  “In the flesh, G.R.’s hybrid of organic and synthetic soundscapes has a smoldering, theatrical flair. Expect their spacey jams to be extra warped and wonderful on their home turf”
  - Lina Lecaro – LA Weekly
  
  Future of indie: 10 bands to keep an eye on “# 7 Gram Rabbit: Rilo Kiley should be ashamed. The excellent L.A. band ditched Saddle Creek Records, made a sub par album, then was outshone in its backyard by Gram Rabbit, billed as Coachella's only hometown band (from Joshua Tree.) Gram Rabbit's sample-infused country was not only dynamic (and Wilco-esque), but the tracks from "Music to Start a Cult to" are defined by their restlessness. One moment it's Flaming Lips-style electro-folk, the next dance- pop. One moment lead singer Jesika Von Rabbit sounds like Kim Deal, next Chrissie Hynde. It's an aural smorgasbord, and the meager crowd at the band's early-afternoon
  main-stage set was left salivating for more.”
  - Ricardo Baca – The Denver Post
   
  Gram Rabbit is the music I’d been looking for, even though I didn’t realize I was looking. Edward Abbey wrote: "Love flowers best in openness and freedom." Gram Rabbit are proof that the same is true for music.
  - Helen Jupiter – Suicide Girls.com
  

Setlist

Set length usually runs from 40min to an hour.
Popular live songs:
Dirty Horse
Bloody Bunnies
Devil's Playground
The Rest of Us Sleep
Cowboy Up
Wheels In Motiion
American Hookers
Cowboys & Aliens
Candy Flip
Off With Your Head

Basic Requirements

Calendar