ARTIST: Gram Rabbit
TITLE: Radio Angel & the Robot Beat
LABEL: Royal Order
GENRE: Electronic
BITRATE: 181kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 41m total
RELEASE DATE: 2007-11-13
RIP DATE: 2007-10-22
Track List
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1. American Hookers 3:49
2. The Rest Of Us Sleep 4:03
3. In My Book 3:25
4. Fancy Dancy 3:28
5. Something Fuzzy 3:28
6. Get Up Off It 1:55
7. Hot Spot 3:15
8. Less Is More 2:57
9. Shiny Monster 3:25
10. Landers 0:49
11. The Places We Go 4:42
12. I Wear The Ears 5:49
Release Notes:
When Gram Rabbit boldly chose to title their debut album Music To Start A Cult
To, one sensed they'd have to have a serious message, their own unique style
and, perhaps, most importantly, a keen sense of irreverence in all that they do.
Indeed, in the case of this Joshua Tree quartet, these qualities are in abundant
supply. With Cultivation, Gram Rabbit's follow-up album, set for release on New
York-based Stinky Records on April 18, 2006, the band again uses the album title
to set the agenda for this next phase of their creative evolution.
Cultivation was recorded in the Fall of 2005, with the band splitting recording
sessions between their beloved Joshua Tree hi-desert headquarters -- AKA "The
Rabbit Ranch" -- and the Silverlake, CA studio of producer Ethan Allen (Kristin
Hersh, 50 Foot Wave, Luscious Jackson). Allen, who produced Music To Start a
Cult To, reprised his producing role on Cultivation, this time in tandem with
the band's guitarist and co-songwriter, Todd Rutherford.
As was the case with the band's debut album, the Joshua Tree hi-desert remains
the single greatest influence on the new album. Frontwoman and co-songwriter
Jesika von Rabbit explains: "Joshua Tree is not only our home, but our
inspiration. The hi-desert has a powerful grip on anyone who visits it. Life
in the desert is a struggle, whether you are a plant, a rabbit, or human. This
struggle has become our muse."
Cultivation finds Gram Rabbit continuing to spread the gospel of their
self-styled "happy cult" -- the Royal Order of Rabbits, but it also takes a
decidedly more serious turn in its examination of the isolation individuals
experience in American commercialist society. The album addresses such weighty
subjects as the class system, the national media's sleight of hand with the
truth and its diverting of attention from important issues with celebrity
trivia, governmental corruption and violence. More importantly, the album muses
on people's struggle to find spirituality and meaning amidst the harsh realities
that comprise modern Western culture. Rutherford states, "Through this album, we
hope to spread the energy of the desert which has been instrumental in showing
us the light, as well as the darkness." Cultivation is aimed at a generation
that is starved not so much for entertainment as it is for meaning. "With
Cultivation," Todd continues, "we hope to plant the seeds of truth in the minds
of listeners, and it is here where the 'cultivation' will take place, spreading
desert energy everywhere."
It was back in 2003 that Rabbit and Rutherford first serendipitously met,
quickly realizing that they shared a profound spiritual connection and unique
musical sensibility. It is this spiritual connection that drives the singular
songwriting and sound that define Gram Rabbit. Following the 2004 release of
Music To Start A Cult To, Gram Rabbit garnered strong radio support from such
tastemaker stations as KCRW and Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles, delivered an epic
performance on the Main Stage of the Coachella Music Festival in May of 2005 and
drew widespread critical praise. Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times
gushed: "[Gram Rabbit] 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." The Los Angeles Weekly enthused: "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. Their Music To Start a Cult To debut caught
the ear with its offbeat and persuasive stack of psych-disco twang, mixing
deadpan smolder, warped theology and the earnest bite only genuine misfits can
muster. The swift and pleasingly strange Rabbit ascension continues to defy any
foreseeable limitations."