ProgRockMain

The majority of prog bands today tend to incorporate keyboards and (to a lesser extent (traditionally), guitars as their featured instruments. Comparisons to Genesis, Yes or Dream Theater (if bordering on metal), etc. tend to be common. Sleeptime Gorilla Museum is a prog band that doesn't fit into the classic prog category or typical progressive band line-up. Musical influences? Add a smidgeon of Zappa, Gwar and King Crimson and trash metal with screaming male vocals, counter pointed by female vocals, violin and a bunch of band-created instruments. This is not heavy mindless screach-rock, but complex, dynamic and intelligent experimentations that are constantly evolving live. The band takes risks. Song content can be far-ranging from- political and reverent, to content about baby doctors, the apocalypse, homicidal feuding neighbors, and the evil of sleep.They are consistently in demand and touring.

The first performance of SGM did, in fact, involve setting up an elaborate "museum" in an abandoned department store (J.J. Newberry's) in downtown Oakland, advertising the date as a "Grand Opening and Closing", then barring the door to the assembled audience and playing for a single banana slug in a terrarium well-lit near the glass door, as advertised. The humans were allowed in the following night, instead of the gradual ascent up the supposed ladder of evolution which would have marked a true commitment to our cause. Out of guilt for that initial impatience, perhaps, they have spent the subsequent years crafting discordant hymns to the inhuman (and tenderly disguised odes to the all-too-human).

The band grew out of the more theatrically-inclined Idiot Flesh (Dan Rathbun: bass-things and voice; Nils Frykdahl: guitar and voice), hyper-active through the 90's. In seeking to move further into texture and writing they fell in with classically-educated violinist and singer Carla Kihlstedt (The Tin Hat Trio (with Rob Burger on accordion and Mark Orton on guitar), formerly of Charming Hostess, and drummer/composer David Shamrock, whose work they'd admired for years. Carla also was in a group called To complete this deliberate and potentially sober ensemble, the recently discovered maniacal percussion tornado of Moe! Staiano was a welcome kick in the can.

Immediately following the debut month, David moved to Missouri and the band became an occasional project until a year or so later when they joined forces with drummer Frank Grau of Species Being, who also instantly became a hard-driving booking agent and record label (Chaosophy), teaming up with Negativeland's Seeland label to release the debut album "Grand Opening and Closing" in 2001. The Museum packed up their appropriately antiquated "Stealth Bus" and began a series of national tours that have brought them to the kind-hearted listeners and national parks of this wide and famous nation.

2003 saw the release of a live album on Chicago's Sickroom records incorporated performances and experimentations over several years. After a break from the road, the group began to work on a second studio album. Their penchant for summer tours has led them to adopt lightweight costumery, oil-based make-up, and animal masks.

In June, 2003, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum opened up day two of Nearfest 2003 to grand reviews. The band is committed to heavy music for the rest of the year.

The intervening years have been filled with touring... After Frank Grau left the band (as a drummer, but is still the group's manager), he was replaced by: Matthais Bossi (Skeleton Key).

In 2004, The band on the Mimicry label released: `Sleepytime Gorilla Museum of Natural History'. The album is full of qwerkiness, treating religious and animal themes with the dynamics of prog while still showcasing their hardcore experimental signature. A DVD concert is still planned to be released in the future.