Customer Reviews

Music to Start a Cult to

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We all see the hype the record companies foster on us, 98% of the time it is nothing but hype. It must have been early August when I read a story about this band in the LA Times. I pride myself on knowing most of the new bands playing but I had never heard of this one. The story on this band was totally compelling, the writer Richard Cromelin (sp?) clearly loved the band but was having a difficult time putting his finger on exactly what they were. Gram Rabbit was beyond conventional description. I had to know more, so at first chance I check out the band live. This is it. The real deal. No pomp and circumstance and no desire to fit into a "scene" they are pure. Rarely does a band come along that has nothing but its own identity. I imagine it would be like seeing the first couple of shows from bands like Devo, B-52s, Sex Pistols, etc. The audience just stares at the stage in a sort of "is this for real" look. Needless to say I bought the record from the band for $10 at the show (slightly better price then Amazon). This is what art in music is all about. Pure creativity. Down with generic music, I am joining this cult. I have never written a review for Amazon, but this record moved me enough to demand it.

It's got to be destiny that I would happen upon this band playing on a live local t.v. show one night at the same time that I've started reading The Dark Tower series and watched Mars Attacks(could have been on the sound track) twice in a week! I couldn't have found a more perfect fitting of music to my mood or choices for tv and reading...I was so excited, I ordered the cd the next day...I love it!

This music has this dark undertone to go with the western twang/electronic sampling...and when you are emerged in it's sound and von Rabbits' voice and the lyrics, and you close your eyes...you FEEL the nights' stars above you...the dry desert wind on your skin...your mind opens and you think maybe aliens do exist... ;)

The tunes are very much their own and I cannot honestly say there are any obvious influences of anyone else's music, which is how 99.9% of the bands sound these days.

My father-in law lives in the desert and has seen Gram Rabbit play many times at the Beatnik and says they are excellent live(I'm still upset that he didn't tell me about them!), so I hope I get to catch their show in a smaller venue before they have too many followers in their Royal Order of Rabbits!

At the same time that I'd like to be selfish and keep them all to myself, I can't help but spread the word of the Rabbit with the World! GET IT!

I love this album...like I love kinky sex. Fun, creative, usually in dimly lit places...this album sucks you in, transporting you to a desert oasis inhabited by cowboys and aliens and psychedelic drugs. All the right ingredients for good old-fashioned fun.

We come upon a meeting between the devil and Jesus via the Rabbits in the Great Desert. The Man on the Moon, the witch on her broom and others are among the gathering. Jesika & Todd provide appropriate Nancy & Lee (Sinatra & Hazelwood)- like vocals to this warped western titled "dirty horse". More weirdness colors another desert song called "cowboy-up", the oddest cowboy song this bunny's ever heard. It's amazing. Gram Rabbit is taking me to all kinds of bizarre locales. What in the hell is making that quivering sonic wail at the end of the song? It penetrates me. "I see. I kill". I can really relate to this one. That preceding phrase from "kill a man" is sung with such cheerful, childlike, hopeful abandon it blows my mind. The juxtaposition of lyrics and music is pure genius. Speaking of mind-blowing, I'd be truly surprised if this band had never consumed hallucinogens because I feel like I've eaten a bunch of Magic Mushrooms when I listen to this album. It's uncanny! "disco#2" is blessed with one of the most otherworldly prologues I've ever heard then the beat drops in with a minimal piano riff and Jesika's wonderful voices/vocals propel me to outer most space. Todd's back on "witness" but Jesika's rap near the end and the little background voices/sounds/twirlies courtesy of Travis steal the show. This is heavenly pop music. Those paranoid keyboards on "land of jail" pierce right through my brain and then it ends with what the hell was that? Slowing the pace with the more accessible sounding "lost in place", it still shines. The ambient human sounds that precede "devil's playground" remind me of the tapes my brother and I used to make when we were kids and which I used in my song "Interconnected" from "Guardians of the Underworld" a few years ago. "devil's playground" is taking me back in time/space. It's just a western-style song so why does it also sound so magical? "Jesus & I" (in reverse) flittered about like a psychedelic butterfly for a few seconds before the martial disco of "cowboys & aliens" drops. The lyrics are all inspired but are especially fantastic on this one. Yes Jesika, I want to play and I want to stay! "We are"....the "new energy". Todd leads this one, a Brian Jonestown Massacre-like droning space gem. And with that, the Rabbits are gone and I am already beginning to miss them. What an amazing journey. I'd like to thank my brother Tee for turning me on to Gram Rabbit by playing "Cultivation" (their follow-up to this) for me recently. As excellent as that CD is, I think this one's even better. I think it's a masterpiece.
For maximum enjoyment, listen to this alien document with headphones!

Found on MySpace, this band quickly became one of my favorites.

A unique blend of techno, folk, and trance this band will never fail to deliver individuality and soothing, rhythmic sound.

Definitely for those who want to expand their musical mind!

I was lucky enough to see Gram Rabbit opening for The Ravonettes a few week ago at Spaceland, in Silverlake, CA. I'd never heard of them before, but after the first few songs I was hooked. The Ravonettes were great, but I left that night with a Hunger for More Rabbit!

This is a band that is great on disk, but to experience them live is beyond the pale...

oh, and the dancing rabbits, the dancing rabbits....

Gram Rabbit are a new and special treat for the music world. Combining a myriad of styles ranging from ambient pop and electronica to folk and rock, it's really quite hard to classify Gram Rabbit into any single genre. If originality and diversity is what a person is looking for on a debut album, then _Music to Start a Cult To_ is where such a search would end.

Formed in 2003 in Joshua Tree, California by vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist Jesika von Rabbit, guitarist/vocalist Todd Rutherford, sampler/bassist Travis Cline, the members of the band comes from a variety of backgrounds, which is more than obvious in their music. Jesika, while living with her mother (a hotel lounge band singer), had been playing piano since she was six; Todd took major musical queues from his father, a local jazz pianist. After these two had met and started musical planning, they discovered Travis while performing local gigs, and soon enough began writing songs for their debut. Shortly after the recording of _Music to Start a Cult To_, they initiated still another guitarist, Tracy Lyons-Tarr, into the band.

_Music to Start a Cult To_ is diverse not only by each individual song, but by the various styles and sounds incorporated into each song. "Cowboy-Up" is full of electronic pulses, samples, and assorted other synth noises. Jesika's vocals here remind me somewhat of Gwen Stefani, but without the pretentious sexual overtones which have recently made that pop star so famous. "Witness" is full of warm, ambient textures, odd sampling, and Jesika's slow, seductive voice. "Dirty Horse" sports a duet of vocals by Jesika and Todd as they make folk-like chants over electronic pulses and acoustic guitar strumming. "Lost in Place" is piano-based, with alternating vocal sets and a slow, almost low-key theme, building up into waves of synthesized notes, setting a trance-like mood. "Devil's Playground" is almost entirely acoustic, with acoustic guitar and tambourine forming the backdrop for a folk-driven performance by Jesika. And "New Energy," the song which first turned my head to this band, is a brilliant, animated song with a stellar performance by Jesika and Todd, and some of the most uplifting melodies and overall vibes anyone is likely to hear.

_Music to Start a Cult To_ is a fairly fitting title for this album. A hidden treasure hailing out of the deserts of California, Gram Rabbit is surely destined for greatness. It's a good thing to know that this is only Gram Rabbit's debut album; as the man says at the end of "New Energy" with a laugh, "It won't stop here."

this band doesn't sound like any other bands I've heard before, they have an original sound that is distictly texan in a good way. I'm usually not much for bands that sing about cowboys, but this band has a culture all thier own. Jessica Von Rabbit has a somewhat of a sarcastic sound in her voice and her lyrics, drummer sets good pace for the music, guitarist can get trippy and slow, but can also go wild. good stuff.

I guess they only ask you to rate the CD's because I've purchased a few records as downloads and for some reason this record was only available as a CD. Anyway these guys are incredible. Great songs great production unique sounding. I highly recommend all of their records.

Every song on here is not only different, but a gem. No matter what CDs or artists I'm phasing through, I always come back to this eclectic album and its refreshingly original band. I cannot get enough! A must-have for anyone who's sick of the current batch of mindless filth masquerading as music and invading our airwaves.