Phillips spent his formative years in Stockton, CA, where he founded a band called Bloody Holly, but prior to his 20th birthday Phillips headed to Los Angeles to study film, and he quickly found himself beneath the spell cast by local bands as The Rain Parade and Dream Syndicate. Phillips soon joined with Stockton acquaintance Jeff Clark to form Shiva Burlesque. The band dissolved after two critically acclaimed records, and Phillips soon began writing and demo-ing using the Grant Lee Buffalo alias.
Following some solo dates, Phillips invited former bandmates Joey Peters and Paul Kimble to join him, and the trio signed to Warner subsidiary Slash in 1992. Phillips’ golden, honey-soaked voice went largely to waste in Shiva Burlesque, but the new band enabled him to step out as a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. GLB went on to release four very different LPs, consistent in excellence. A cult following, successful tours, and across-the-board critical acclaim (he was voted Rolling Stone’s Male Vocalist of the Year following their second LP).
Howe Gelb.
American singer-songwriter and Giant Sand-frontman Howe Gelb released his solo-album in June of 2012. During the production of this solo album he worked together with his 12 men band that has recently changed its name to Giant Giant Sand because of its growing number of musicians. Nevertheless Gelb won’t back down to go on stage and conquer the crowd on his own.
