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Ah, the evolution of the girl group. Just when you resign yourself to the fact that it’s all been done again and again, something new comes along to give you hope. The Kirby Grips possess musical hints of dreamy 60’s girl groups, straight to the heart country standards and the melodic punk of the late 70’s. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area they began bringing their unique brand of garage-pop to the west coast music scene in 1995.
Laughing at themselves and the absurdity of life, these three quirky surrealists have appeared at the Noise Pop Festival, CMJ Music Marathon, Nadine’s Wild Weekend, at the Bay-To-Breakers Race, in the Ian Brennan Unscrubbed Shows (both in S.F. and L.A.), The Bay Pop Festival and have performed at various benefits for charities such as A Parent’s Place. Sadly, their first prison appearance was cancelled due to a lock down (true story).
Lead vocalist and guitarist, China Tamblyn, weaves lyrical luminous flux throughout her witty and ironic songs. Her killer instinct for imagery grabs the listener instantly.
Bassist and vocalist, Liz Byrne, ardently moves between tragic and comic expressing her fast and loose fatalistic philosophy. Her songs evoke a sonic film noir landscape.
Drummer and vocalist, Michele Kappel, is a live wire, electric and captivating one moment and then dreamy and sentimental the next.
In 1997 their first ep: “The Celery Stalks At Night” was released and the song “Mod Boy” reached 4 on Rodney Bingenheimer’s KROQ radio show's most requested list. In 2000 the renegade record label Sympathy For The Record Industry released their full-length “The Cherry Stem Concertos” worldwide and it shot to 3 on KALX Berkeley’s top 100 chart. In 2001 their track “Photoday” was featured in the opening segment of A&E Biography’s Prism Award winning focus on Charlie Sheen. Also in 2001 their contribution to the Sympathy compilation “How Many Bands Does It Take To Screw Up A Blondie Tribute?” was spun repeatedly by the BBC’s granddaddy of indie disc-jockeys John Peel, as well as, hitting the charts across the U.S. Summer of 2002 brought the high-voltage third release “Rotations” which garnered praise from international and domestic critics and showed an even broader grasp of art-rock meets melodic pop.
The Noise Pop Festival kicked off 2003 in style for the ladies and then mysteriously the trio took flight and disappeared into the ether. While rumors circulated they were brunching every other Sunday with Amelia Earhart, a note on the website made claims to inter-galactic travel. Other sources claimed that they were branching off into new artistic territories: One to delve back into the art world creating epic mixed-media sculptures and paintings, one to pick up a ukulele and hit the boards near and far with a fresh take on old-timey tunes and one to infiltrate the underground punk scene with her intellectual moxie and ardent cultural pulse.
Announcing the return!
The Kirby Grips have selected September 20th, 2008 as the date to reignite the fire.
Stay tuned for the next chapter...
i was totally blown away by you kids when i saw you play with the jolenes @ the tonic lounge. i was SO stoked to get a copy of The Celery Stalks at Night. i listened to that cd nonstop for weeks.
