Biography

A powerhouse pop-psyche band extraordinaire who write insanely gripping melodic nuggets- a gorgeous alchemy of the 60's & 70's brought into the 21st century, with ripping guitars, explosive drumming & golden harmonies. The Grip Weeds were formed in 1988 in New Brunswick NJ by brothers Rick & Kurt Reil. The band is named after the fictional character “Musketeer Gripweed”, played by John Lennon in Richard Lester’s 1967 motion picture How I Won The War. Kristin Pinell Reil is on lead gtr & Dave DeSantis plays bass. Their 1st release was See You Through (1992). House Of Vibes (1994) was recorded in their own studio aka The House Of Vibes. It's been put to use by The Smithereens, Mark Lindsay, Najma Akhtar, Gary Lucas & many more. The Sound Is In You (1998). Rainbow Quartz Records released Summer Of A Thousand Years (2001), Giant On The Beach (2004), Strange Change Machine (2010) & Under The Influence Of Christmas (2011). Steven Van Zandt’s label released Infinite Soul: The Best Of (2008); he's has been a supporter via Sirius XM's The Underground Garage. Speed of Live & DVD Live Vibes (2012), Inner Grooves (2013) & Force Of Nature (2016). JEM Records released How I Won The War (2015) & Trip Around The Sun (2018). They appeared on 3 tributes: JEM Records Celebrates John Lennon (2020), Brian Wilson (2021) & Pete Townshend (2022); DiG (2021), an album of covers recorded during the pandemic. They've performed at venues worldwide, incl SXSW, The Cavern Club & several tours of Europe.