Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Gram Rabbit's desert space rocktronica

Jesika von Rabbit's band hops into Belly Up on Wednesday

Gram Rabbit are cutting their teeth on cable TV.
Gram Rabbit are cutting their teeth on cable TV.

Gram Rabbit, from Joshua Tree, California, has been around for at least a decade and has released several albums, beginning with 2004’s Music to Start a Cult To. An underwear manufacturer broke them out in a big way when one of Gram Rabbit’s originals was licensed for a national television campaign. But then, licensing has always been an integral cog in the Gram Rabbit machine. Their music’s been all over cable-TV dramas — Sons of Anarchy and the like. It’s easy to see how that could happen. Gram Rabbit wears many musical hats, most of which are unrelated. Country rock? Got that. Electro-dance? Got that, too. “Desert space rocktronica,” Gram Rabbit calls it.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Video:

"Desperate Heart"

...from Gram Rabbit's <em>Welcome to the Country</em> album

...from Gram Rabbit's Welcome to the Country album

The savvy reader will no doubt connect Gram Rabbit, Joshua Tree, and the late Gram Parsons, who died in a motel there in 1973 at the age of 26. The father of alt-country formed the Flying Burrito Brothers with ex–San Diegan Chris Hillman before he OD’d in his room. That Parsons’s remains were appropriated by his manager and burned near Cap Rock only enhances the man’s dark legend.

Past Event

Eagles of Death Metal and Gram Rabbit

  • Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 8 p.m.
  • Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach
  • 21+ / $22 - $39

Jesika von Rabbit fronts the group. A small-scale Lady Gaga, she’s a kind of Halloween Playboy-bunny type originally from Green Bay; she had a high school band back in Wisconsin called Porn Flakes. She met future Gram Rabbit member Todd Rutherford after she fled the music scene in Los Angeles for the sanctity of the high desert. Rutherford was deep into Parsons and Emmylou Harris and so on, and he connected Rabbit to that music. With producer/guitarist Ethan Allen and drummer Jason Gilbert, Gram Rabbit went on to win Best New Artist from LA Weekly and landed on the main stage at Coachella. So, how do they make all of their cinematic alt-country dance-floor grooves work? That remains a mystery. There’s no sense of continuity. Nothing fits. Don’t even try to get a handle on it.

Eagles of Death Metal also perform.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Maoli, St. Jordi’s Day & San Diego Book Crawl, Encinitas Spring Street Fair

Events April 25-April 27, 2024
Next Article

Normal Heights transplants

The couple next door were next: a thick stack of no-fault eviction papers were left taped to their door.
Gram Rabbit are cutting their teeth on cable TV.
Gram Rabbit are cutting their teeth on cable TV.

Gram Rabbit, from Joshua Tree, California, has been around for at least a decade and has released several albums, beginning with 2004’s Music to Start a Cult To. An underwear manufacturer broke them out in a big way when one of Gram Rabbit’s originals was licensed for a national television campaign. But then, licensing has always been an integral cog in the Gram Rabbit machine. Their music’s been all over cable-TV dramas — Sons of Anarchy and the like. It’s easy to see how that could happen. Gram Rabbit wears many musical hats, most of which are unrelated. Country rock? Got that. Electro-dance? Got that, too. “Desert space rocktronica,” Gram Rabbit calls it.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Video:

"Desperate Heart"

...from Gram Rabbit's <em>Welcome to the Country</em> album

...from Gram Rabbit's Welcome to the Country album

The savvy reader will no doubt connect Gram Rabbit, Joshua Tree, and the late Gram Parsons, who died in a motel there in 1973 at the age of 26. The father of alt-country formed the Flying Burrito Brothers with ex–San Diegan Chris Hillman before he OD’d in his room. That Parsons’s remains were appropriated by his manager and burned near Cap Rock only enhances the man’s dark legend.

Past Event

Eagles of Death Metal and Gram Rabbit

  • Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 8 p.m.
  • Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach
  • 21+ / $22 - $39

Jesika von Rabbit fronts the group. A small-scale Lady Gaga, she’s a kind of Halloween Playboy-bunny type originally from Green Bay; she had a high school band back in Wisconsin called Porn Flakes. She met future Gram Rabbit member Todd Rutherford after she fled the music scene in Los Angeles for the sanctity of the high desert. Rutherford was deep into Parsons and Emmylou Harris and so on, and he connected Rabbit to that music. With producer/guitarist Ethan Allen and drummer Jason Gilbert, Gram Rabbit went on to win Best New Artist from LA Weekly and landed on the main stage at Coachella. So, how do they make all of their cinematic alt-country dance-floor grooves work? That remains a mystery. There’s no sense of continuity. Nothing fits. Don’t even try to get a handle on it.

Eagles of Death Metal also perform.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

La Jolla's Whaling Bar going in new direction

47th and 805 was my City Council district when I served in 1965
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Save Ferris brings a clapping crowd to the Belly Up

Maybe the band was a bigger deal than I had remembered
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.