Unholy Modal Rounders

The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally the duo of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, who formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City. Their sense of humor and unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following and has influenced bands like Yo La Tengo and Espers.As the Holy Modal Rounders, Stampfel and Weber began playing in Greenwich Village, at the heart of the ongoing American folk music revival, and released two albums of old-time music in the mid-1960s. Following a brief stint with the influential underground rock band the Fugs in 1965, the duo broke up for the first time. After they reunited in 1967, the band for the rest of its existence included more members, mostly notably adding famed playwright Sam Shepard as a drummer and later guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. In the late 1960s, the band recorded two albums of psychedelic folk before shifting towards a folk rock sound in the 1970s.

By 1971, the duo had a stable backing band. The members of this backing band also began playing as the Clamtones with Jeffrey Frederick in 1975. In 1972, Weber relocated the band to Portland, Oregon while Stampfel stayed behind in New York. Stampfel and Weber often had a hostile relationship and they would only reunite occasionally following the end of the band’s original incarnation. After Weber returned to the East Coast in 1995, the duo began a series of concert reunions starting in 1996 before breaking up for the last time in 2003.

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