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Formed around the songwriting prowess of Eric D Johnson, the band came together when Johnson drafted members of the band he was in, I Rowboat, to work on bringing his solo project Fruit Bats to life. Johnson had been a jobbing guitarist in a number of bands before, but by 2000 he was teaching at Chicago's Old Town School Of Folk Music. Deciding to give a genuine career in music one last shot, he drafted I Rowboat members Dan Strack and Brian Belval to form a live band for his solo work, and started performing as Fruit Bats soon afterwards. By 2001, the act had signed to Perishable Records and released “Echolocation”, their debut album.
The band spent the rest of the year on tour, either playing headline shows or supporting other indie rock bands making huge waves for themselves. One of these bands was the New Mexico based group The Shins, who became friends with Fruit Bands during their time touring together. As a result of this connection, the band signed with The Shins' label, indie rock legends Sub Pop, in 2002. Since then, the band have released a further four records, each of them as hugely acclaimed as the last, and even though Johnson pulled the plug on the band in 2013, he put the band back together in 2015 to tour with My Morning Jacket. For remaining one of the most exciting projects in indie rock nearly two decades after their beginning, Fruit Bats come highly recommended.
I’m not sure that ‘nearly men’ is really the appropriate term to apply to Fruit Bats - because, honestly, they never really were all that ‘near’ to any kind of significant success - but suffice to say that I doubt anybody who gave their records a chance could really hold the view that their level of recognition, both critically and commercially, was in any way in genuine correlation to the level of their ability. The band were fronted by Eric Johnson who, for his own part, made a brief foray into the limelight when he joined The Shins for a short while, touring with them for Wincing the Night Away, but his raw talent as a songwriter largely flew under the radar with Fruit Bats. After releasing five genuinely gorgeous records over twelve years, the band called time on their endeavours last year, playing a handful of farewell shows in the process. They packed out intimate rooms, finishing up in Portland, Oregon, and played career-spanning sets that highlighted the strength of their back catalogue, with Johnson’s wistful lyrics never more appropriate. He’ll likely continue to record and tour in his own right, and will be well worth keeping an eye out for; Fruit Bats really were a hidden gem.
Joeg_67
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