Grant Lee Buffalo - Live London Astoria 1993
Grant Lee Buffalo - Live at The 930 Club 1998
Grant Lee Buffalo - Live at Schlachthof 1993
Grant Lee Buffalo is a Los Angeles-based rock band, consisting of Grant-Lee Phillips (vocals and guitar), Paul Kimble (bass) and Joey Peters (drums). All three were previously members of another LA band, Shiva Burlesque. As GLB, they released four albums: Fuzzy (1993), Mighty Joe Moon (1994), Copperopolis (1996) and Jubilee (1998, without Kimble who had left the band the previous year). After the release of Jubilee, the band broke up and Phillips continued to pursue a successful solo career. In 2010 the band reunited and they will be touring again in 2011. Grant Lee Buffalo has an Americana-tinged sound, clearly influenced by the likes of Neil Young and elements of old-fashioned country music, and often tackled political and social issues in their lyrics (for example, "Lone Star Song" from Mighty Joe Moon references the infamous Waco siege). They toured with major bands of the early-to-mid 1990s such as R.E.M., Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins. From: https://www.last.fm/music/Grant+Lee+Buffalo/+wiki
I'll try to wrap it up nicely in one bright package, this accumulation of songs, years, human sweat and dreams. All of these shared amongst myself and my band mates, Paul Kimble and Joey Peters. Grant Lee Buffalo was our band name and the sum total force of our efforts for most of a decade.
The 1990's saw the underground uprooted and the mainstream flooded when, for one golden moment, no one seemed to be at the wheel. Our own history was rooted in Los Angeles near the end of the Eighties. Each of us had come to Los Angeles to pursue our individual dreams. In the beginning I roofed houses by day and attended film school by night. Joey Peters held all sorts of odd jobs at the time we met, from stocking groceries to film crew work, often juggling several drumming gigs at once. Paul Kimble sold stereos, set up hi-fi gear while pursuing his own musical yearnings. From the time I had arrived in LA I had hopes of joining a band, if not putting one together myself. Shiva Burlesque was part band/part lodge. For every show we played, we must have held 30 rehearsals. Those humid evenings would often disintegrate into long winded talks on the Marx Brothers and Aldous Huxley and the hidden parallels that lie between them. My role was primarily that of guitarist, co-songwriter and co-conspirator. Jeffrey Clark, from my home town of Stockton, CA was the band's singer and main lyricist. The original lineup would evolve over the years, but at one time or another, Shiva Burlesque featured the likes of James Brenner (later of Scenic), Biff Sanders (Four Way Cross, Ethel Meatplow), Rich Evac (Phsycom), and a handful of others. The group finally found it's footing with drummer Joey Peters, frontman Jeff Clark, bassist James Brenner, and myself. Peters brought with him an original style that was at once subtle, intuitive and also extremely dramatic. Our musical marriage was a spontaneous one and I suspect that our influence on one another's development is apt to be indelible. This lineup would release one self-titled album in 1988. Not long after, the band would lose Brenner and would begin to search for a new bassist. It was around this time that I first met Paul Kimble. Paul had traveled the farthest, from Freeport, Illinois. There was an instant creative chemistry among the group that ultimately found it's way on record with Shiva Burlesque's Mercury Blues in 1990. By then it was a five-piece with the inclusion of cellist Greg Adamson, who later performed on the song Mockingbirds. Personality conflicts and growing pains would eventually bring the group to an end as a new decade was dawning. For Joey, Paul and myself, Shiva Burlesque had brought us together, but our power as a trio would alter our lives.
Moonlighting under a different band name every show, we began to explore the songs that were gushing out of me in my mid twenties. "Rex Mundi" would appear on one night, followed by the "Machine Elves" the next. These bands had a whole lot in common -- we were both of 'em. Longing to step forward with the songs I was writing, I needed the courage of a veil to fully accept my lot as a performer. Grant Lee Buffalo was precisely that. It provided me with the strength and the camaraderie of a pack and it allowed me the freedom to be vulnerable as an artist. Questions of "who are, who is, and what is Grant Lee Buffalo still seem to abound. Within our little world, however, the axis was forever shifting. In the early part of the nineties we began to work diligently on the home recording of several songs. Most of the basic tracks were quickly cut with emphasis on capturing the drums. Joey and I would provide the basic skeleton in the recording room, as Paul would be twisting the dials in a separate building. Paul and I would then proceed to layer the overdubs, all of this just as Joey Peters was enlisting with the group Cracker. It was a setback that led to various replacement drummers over the following year. For this reason, early fliers and a limited vinyl single features the likeness of Kimble, myself and drummer David Strayer, although Peters had actually played on the recording. This release, originally a demo recording of "Fuzzy" was distributed by Bob Mould's Single Only label in the summer of '92 and before long was gathering significant airplay at Boston's WFNX. In October of that same year we signed a recording deal with Slash Records, Kimble, myself, and a nearly absent but Cracker-free Joey Peters. From: https://grantleebuffalo.com/history1.html
I'll try to wrap it up nicely in one bright package, this accumulation of songs, years, human sweat and dreams. All of these shared amongst myself and my band mates, Paul Kimble and Joey Peters. Grant Lee Buffalo was our band name and the sum total force of our efforts for most of a decade.
The 1990's saw the underground uprooted and the mainstream flooded when, for one golden moment, no one seemed to be at the wheel. Our own history was rooted in Los Angeles near the end of the Eighties. Each of us had come to Los Angeles to pursue our individual dreams. In the beginning I roofed houses by day and attended film school by night. Joey Peters held all sorts of odd jobs at the time we met, from stocking groceries to film crew work, often juggling several drumming gigs at once. Paul Kimble sold stereos, set up hi-fi gear while pursuing his own musical yearnings. From the time I had arrived in LA I had hopes of joining a band, if not putting one together myself. Shiva Burlesque was part band/part lodge. For every show we played, we must have held 30 rehearsals. Those humid evenings would often disintegrate into long winded talks on the Marx Brothers and Aldous Huxley and the hidden parallels that lie between them. My role was primarily that of guitarist, co-songwriter and co-conspirator. Jeffrey Clark, from my home town of Stockton, CA was the band's singer and main lyricist. The original lineup would evolve over the years, but at one time or another, Shiva Burlesque featured the likes of James Brenner (later of Scenic), Biff Sanders (Four Way Cross, Ethel Meatplow), Rich Evac (Phsycom), and a handful of others. The group finally found it's footing with drummer Joey Peters, frontman Jeff Clark, bassist James Brenner, and myself. Peters brought with him an original style that was at once subtle, intuitive and also extremely dramatic. Our musical marriage was a spontaneous one and I suspect that our influence on one another's development is apt to be indelible. This lineup would release one self-titled album in 1988. Not long after, the band would lose Brenner and would begin to search for a new bassist. It was around this time that I first met Paul Kimble. Paul had traveled the farthest, from Freeport, Illinois. There was an instant creative chemistry among the group that ultimately found it's way on record with Shiva Burlesque's Mercury Blues in 1990. By then it was a five-piece with the inclusion of cellist Greg Adamson, who later performed on the song Mockingbirds. Personality conflicts and growing pains would eventually bring the group to an end as a new decade was dawning. For Joey, Paul and myself, Shiva Burlesque had brought us together, but our power as a trio would alter our lives.
Moonlighting under a different band name every show, we began to explore the songs that were gushing out of me in my mid twenties. "Rex Mundi" would appear on one night, followed by the "Machine Elves" the next. These bands had a whole lot in common -- we were both of 'em. Longing to step forward with the songs I was writing, I needed the courage of a veil to fully accept my lot as a performer. Grant Lee Buffalo was precisely that. It provided me with the strength and the camaraderie of a pack and it allowed me the freedom to be vulnerable as an artist. Questions of "who are, who is, and what is Grant Lee Buffalo still seem to abound. Within our little world, however, the axis was forever shifting. In the early part of the nineties we began to work diligently on the home recording of several songs. Most of the basic tracks were quickly cut with emphasis on capturing the drums. Joey and I would provide the basic skeleton in the recording room, as Paul would be twisting the dials in a separate building. Paul and I would then proceed to layer the overdubs, all of this just as Joey Peters was enlisting with the group Cracker. It was a setback that led to various replacement drummers over the following year. For this reason, early fliers and a limited vinyl single features the likeness of Kimble, myself and drummer David Strayer, although Peters had actually played on the recording. This release, originally a demo recording of "Fuzzy" was distributed by Bob Mould's Single Only label in the summer of '92 and before long was gathering significant airplay at Boston's WFNX. In October of that same year we signed a recording deal with Slash Records, Kimble, myself, and a nearly absent but Cracker-free Joey Peters. From: https://grantleebuffalo.com/history1.html
