formed in the spring of 1994 with Gary on Bass and vocals, Tom on guitar and Chiyo on drums. All were in other bands which weren't doing anything at the time, and thus Noothgrush was born. Luis Davila soon joined as a second bassist, and began collecting equipment including Orange stacks, Moog, Echoplex, Timpani, and an overhead projector with oil and food coloring. In early 1995, Luis announced that he was leaving and after the next show, Tom quit, leaving the band for dead. The only person in attendance at that show was fellow DJ at KFJC, Mr. Hate (aka Russ) who offered to take up the guitar post, leading to a thriving band which would last for 6 more years.
Matt Harvey also joined in on second guitar for a year in the early years, only to be replaced by Gary on second guitar while Al Ruel took over the bass duties also for a year. We have played 145 shows, toured the U.S. and Quebec for 7 weeks, did numerous west coast, southwest tours with various bands such as Corrupted, Seized, Wisigoth, Dystopia, Hellchild, Black Army Jacket, Twentythirdchapter, to name a few. We played three Fiesta Grande Festivals and played most often at 924 Gilman st. in Berkeley. We also played with many really great bands such as Grief, Cattlepress, Man Is The Bastard, Spazz, Abscess, Suffocation, Morgion, Burning Witch, Grave, Cluster Bomb Unit, His Hero Is Gone, High on Fire, Grimple, Logical Nonsense, Amber Asylum, Exhumed, Weakling, Asunder, El Dopa, Lachrymose, etc. There is a complete list of the shows we have played including dates, venues, and other bands on the bill in our blog section.
Noothgrush ceased to exist in 2001, as the band sought to develop new material and not be forced to perform the old repertoire. Unfortunately, involvement with other bands, jobs, etc. kept the new project from developing.
In September 2006, the last 3 recording sessions were released on an anthology CD on Throne Records, and we're currently working on releasing the original LP version of Erode the Person on Parasitic Records
Gary does a progressive rock radio show on the fourth Sunday of every month at 10pm on KPFA.org or 94.1 FM in the Bay Area. He is also a frequent guest on another prog rock radio show on KZSU Stanford.
Russ is playing guitar in Alaric (www.myspace.com/alaricalaric) and the Producer and host of an experimental radio show, the No Other Radio Network, on KPFA evry Tuesday night at midnight on 94.1 FM or online at KPFA.org. Check out the No Other Radio Network blog at nootherradio.blogspot.com for playlists and audio archives of the programme.
Chiyo plays percussion in Amber Asylum and dj's at various shows and venues.
Matt Harvey is in Exhumed.