The Grassy Knoll

The Grassy Knoll

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Time to roll out the hyphenated musical tags for this unique instrumental band from Texas--jazz noir practitioners who incorporate elements of bebop, acid jazz, surf guitar, and hip hop into a smoky, sax-driven sound. Everything is solidly grounded in the beat and hence is a lot more accessible than it might appear. Catch the Bowie sample on "Less Than One." Jeff Bateman

Product Description
1995 debut album. Universal. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tracks:

Culture of Complaint
March Eighteenth
Unbelievable Truth
Altering the Gates of the Mind
Conversations With Julian Dexter
Floating Above the Earth
Less Than One
Low
Evolution 9
Beauty Within
Illusions of Peace
Spirit Slips Away
Left Becomes Right

Album Description

1995 debut album. Universal.

Customer Reviews:

THE Sountrack For Life.......2002-03-06

This is lounge jazz, if you'll permit me to describe it as that. Production values are top-rate. Drum sequencing is subtle, allowing for the live instrument performances to give it a close and dynamic feel. This is more a sensory experience, allowing your mind freedom to dream up whatever visuals you can. Not many albums these days can give you a unique experience, but this album will achieve that. This album has broad appeal which would make it enjoyable for most people, not just a specialty crowd.

Perhaps these three Grassy Knoll albums, published on Nettwerk Records in Canada (same label as Sarah MacLachlan), are some of the most overlooked treasures to be found. They are already at the discount margin at Nettwerk.

The track "Floating Above The Earth" has some resemblance to "Driving Nowhere" on the follow-up album, Positive.

This self-titled album, as published by Nettwerk, has 11 tracks, listed the same as the first 11 on the Uni/Verve edition. However, the Uni/Verve edition has two extra tracks.

Tracks:

Black Helicopters
Driving Nowhere
Slow Steady Salvation
1961
The Americans
Roswell Crash
The Common Good
Another Theory
Wailing & Gnashing Of Teeth
Fall Of The American Empire
All Things Considered
Corrosion Of The Masses
End Of It All

Amazon.com

"Black Helicopters," "Corrosion of the Masses," "Fall of the American Empire," "Roswell Crash," and "The Grassy Knoll" sound like index entries in a book about conspiracy-theory paranoia, but the first four are actually song titles from Positive; the fifth is the name of the group that made the album. The Grassy Knoll is actually just aural assembler Bob Green and whatever hired hands he brings on board for each project. His music has also been described as ambient, techno, dub, fusion and prog-rock. Too often, though, it simply sounds like new-age background music with the bottom brought up in the mix and with distortion added to the bass and guitar. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews:

positive, positive!.......2006-05-15

goeffrey himes has stopped reviewing cds for amazon.com thank the lord above-i hope you decay real slowly listening to this cd for the first time in your life. you are supposed to listen to the music, and then take the drugs, and then shoot yourself in the head, and then AND only then do you write a review. what a wonderfully stupid person you are. this kind of review sends people back to STUPID bands like- the backstreet boys, j-low, britney spears, and every hairspray hair band of the 80,90, and beyond. besides his stupid review, i would like to say- go out and find this cd it is well worth your energy. then and only then can you write your own review.

Excellent & Different.......2001-06-06

This is the first album I've reviewed. I'd like to start by asking what the HELL is Geoffrey Himes smoking? Did he even listen to this record? It sure doesn't seem like he did. "new-age background music" ? Cmon man!!

So, here I am writing a review from the perspective of somebody who has actually listened to this thing. Let me say that this is one of my favorite albums. I admit I like their self-titled album more (it seems to be a little less polished, a little more rough around the edges, and I like that), but this one finishes very close behind it.

The songs are all instrumental. All have a very cool, driving beat, good use of drums and bass. Often very funky. On top of this you may hear very jazzy (and often very wild) sax and trumpet, piano, string samples, and other less recognizable instruments :)

The whole effect ranges from dark forboding and desolate (as if you were being shown an empty world, ruined cities, after a war or something.. I dont know, just some of the solo trumpet stuff gives me that kind of chilling impression), to crazy and chaotic (even almost angry at times with those wild solos), to funky.

I havn't seen everything, but I havn't yet found anything quite like Grassy Knoll. It's sad the cd is kind of tough to find, it's a real work of art.

Ambient Rock.......1998-05-15

This collection of kinda-scary jazz-rock items brings to mind the "Jazz" qualities of Acid Jazz - fine musicianship, teamwork, and reigned-in improv. Their themes may be modern, but their technique is, at the heart, old-school. This is for the more intelligent Acid Jazz afficianadoes.

Average customer rating:

real music
A startlingly great album
A pretty funky CD!
Intelligent Fusion of Jazz, Rock and Dance music

III
The Grassy Knoll
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Acid Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Grassy Knoll
Positive

ASIN: B000006P6R
Release Date: 1998-05-05

Tracks:

A Beaten Dog Beneath The Hail
Down In The Happy Zone
Every Third Thought
Blue Wires
Paul Has An Emotional Uncle
Six To Four To Three
Of All Possible Worlds...Pt. ll
The Violent Misery Of Everything Lost
A World Reduced To Zero
Safe
lll
112 Greene Street
Thunder Ain't Rain

Amazon.com

Grassy Knoll mastermind Bob Green has an obsession with '70s jazz-fusion à la Miles Davis's Bitches Brew. Along with coconspirator Nick Sansano, guest guitarist Thurston Moore, and a number talented sidemen, Green devises a thick, invigorating mix of jazz-rock embellished with modern studio wizardry. Locked in step with David Revelli's muscular percussion work, Green's bubbling bass guitar anchors most of this recording. Cuts like "Down in the Happy Zone" bristle with cosmic riffery and improvised solos while "Every Third Thought" is a pensive dirge showcasing hallucinatory samples. Enriched by a number of electronic keyboards, strings, saxophones, and Chris Grady's Miles-inspired trumpet, this is top-notch electronic fusion. --Mitch Myers

Customer Reviews:

real music.......2003-03-08

this album is already five years old... after at least 500 spins - still not tired of it. positive is also great!
bob green is a musical genius - for whatever that's worth these days.

A startlingly great album.......1999-12-31

With more loops and cuts and general production value than the first two albums, this third effort by Grassy Knoll has the insistent hard lazy beats of an excellent dub machine with overlaid fuzz guitar, screaming coleman-esque saxophone, and insectoid droning sounds. I imagine this as the soundtrack to a Terry Gilliam production of The Metamorphasis, but at the same time, it's guaranteed to get your head and feet moving like the best of the Wu-Tang efforts.

An incredible fusion of sampling and live instruments with a very heavy groove awareness. The thinking man's acid jazz/rock fusion, it will light a fuse in your brain.

This is a subliminal album that gets intot he cracks in your head and resonates there, strings and synth and live drums creating a music space sometimes reminiscent of Radiohead ("every third thought"), sometimes of instrumental Nine Inch Nails - but with more live talent ("the violent misery of everything lost").

If you do a lot of "Hey, check this out, I love this sound" to your friends and family, this is an album for you. A true audiophile's dream, exploring the spaces in between the jazz and rock and electronica genres, all led by Bob Green's moody, melancholic guitar riffs.

A pretty funky CD!.......1998-11-15

I was very pleased with this CD. I really like "Paul has an emotional uncle" and "Of all possible worlds...Pt II". I like electronica and respect the process involved in creating it, but for those who think it takes no skill, The Grassy Knoll is a good compromise. This CD combines live instruments with funky electronic stuff, and it ultimately arranged electronically. The only problem I had with this CD was that too many songs lack a good structure for presentation of the beat, but that's only according to my preference, which is in the general electronica area. Good CD!

Intelligent Fusion of Jazz, Rock and Dance music.......1998-06-19

Fusion has had a bad name for a long time. This was largely deserved, but fortunately we no longer have to listen to Chick Corea's Return to Forever playing songs about fairies, the Stanley Clarke band impersonating Carl Lewis in the 100 metres, or Weather Report compromising all the marvellous things that Wayne Shorter had done with Miles and as a solo artist (and remember, this was the cream of the fusion crop). So now, finally, perhaps the world is safe for fusion. Part of the reason may be the state of music in general - in the early seventies, the contemporaries of the Jazz artists gone Rock were Yes and ELP - nowadays, it's Tortoise and Tricky. The Grassy Knoll are closer to the latter two stars of today's alternative scene than to fusion of old, and we are much the better for it. They are even closer to Red Snapper - play this album back to back with Prince Blimey, and you'll see the connection. With a wide range of tonalities from the eclectic instrumentation, this is a very nice set of jazzy, funky, ambient instrumentals.

The leader of the band is Bob Green, who is the sample wizard as well as providing keyboards and guitar - but unlike the majority of the Acid Jazz/Trip Hop brigade who cut and paste existing Jazz music into new forms, but don't actually play Jazz, The Grassy Knoll has a deep lineup of superb musicians. They feature a live drummer, several horn players, and real violin and cello - not synthesized strings. This makes for a very rich and varied sound, as different instruments take the lead on different tracks. The opener, "a beaten dog beneath the hail", gets things off on a very Ornette/Prime Time footing, which is a continued theme throughout the album. However, this is no one trick pony. The music is varied, with string led ambient pieces, such as "of all possible worlds ... pt. II" providing a contrast to the raging harmolodics of "six to four to three", or the lovely flute of "the violent misery of everything lost". "112 gr! eene street", which features Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore on guitar, sounds like Tortoise plays Portishead.

The Grassy Knoll
Average customer rating:

what was the name of the girl in the bar

The Grassy Knoll
The Grassy Knoll
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Acid Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Positive

Goldbug

ASIN: B0000046ZT
Release Date: 1995-08-22

Tracks:

Culture Of Complaint
March Eighteenth
Unbelievable Truth
Altering The Gates Of The Mind
Conversations With Julian Dexter
Floating Above The Earth
Less Than One
Low
Evolution #9
The Beauty Within
Illusions Of Peace
Spirit Slips Away
Left Becomes Right

Amazon.com

Time to roll out the hyphenated musical tags for this unique instrumental band from Texas--jazz noir practitioners who incorporate elements of bebop, acid jazz, surf guitar, and hip hop into a smoky, sax-driven sound. Everything is solidly grounded in the beat and hence is a lot more accessible than it might appear. Catch the Bowie sample on "Less Than One." Jeff Bateman

Album Description

1995 debut album. Universal.

Customer Reviews:

what was the name of the girl in the bar.......2004-06-04

hi bob, 10 years later and this still feels current

Average customer rating:

Third Time Progressive

III
The Grassy Knoll
Manufacturer: Nettwerk UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Acid Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00005J97Y
Release Date: 2006-06-22

Tracks:

Beaten Dog Beneath the Hail
Down in the Happy Zone
Every Third Thought
Blue Wires
Paul Has an Emotional Uncle
Six to Four to Three
Of All Possible Worlds...Pt. II
Violent Misery of Everything Lost
World Reduced to Zero
Safe
III
112 Greene Street
Thunder Ain't Rain

Album Description

1998 album. Universal.

Customer Reviews:

Third Time Progressive.......2002-03-19

The back of the insert reads, "for those who have lost". This album takes a more sinister and sad tone than previous albums. Bob's programming electronica takes a more prominent role here, yet the tracks leave enough freedom to improvise. There are some surprising trance and ambient tracks (like "Safe") that prove there is so much more to what this band is capable of than previously revealed. On the first listen, I thought this was a rather long album. Now I'm really enjoying it. This album is also good driving music. Once again, the production quality is top-rate.

Thurston Moore plays guitar on a few tracks, but I couldn't discern the difference.

Emigre Music Sampler Vol. 2 (Rarities, Remixes, etc.)
Average customer rating:
Emigre Music Sampler Vol. 2 (Rarities, Remixes, etc.)
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Emigre
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000K28KQO

Product Description

Introduction to 13 groups by Emigre music

Average customer rating:

Buckeyed Rabbit
Grassy Knoll Boys
Manufacturer: Genuine Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000E5LFNW
Release Date: 2006-02-14

Tracks:

Buckeyed Rabbit
See that My Grave is Kept Clean
Old Hannah
Rebecca
Chickens
Crow Jane
Jerusalem Moan
You Won't Be Satisfied That Way
Panther's Bluff
Darling Our Love
Pretty Saro
Smokeshire Blues
Send Me to the Electric Chair

Average customer rating:

Musically poetic...
A Trashier Grassy Knoll Sound
Jazzy Orb?

Positive
The Grassy Knoll
Manufacturer: Nettwerk
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Acid Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Dance & DJ | Imports | Stores | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00005J978
Release Date: 2002-08-09

Tracks:

Black Helicopters
Driving Nowhere
Slow Steady Salvation
1961
Americans
Roswell Crash
Common Good
Another Theory
Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth
Fall of the American Empire
All Things Considered
Corrosion of the Masses
End of It All

Customer Reviews:

Musically poetic..........2002-04-09

Everything behind the music of grassy knoll has a poetic touch to it. Its no wonder why they are signed with the Jazz divition of its label.
The whole cd is a journey through funk, rock and even electronic beats.
The title of each track is a perfect description of what lies ahead.
If you dont like instrumental music, then you should listen to this cd, it is different, innovative, and a rocking statement!
Its sad that artists like the Grassy Knoll have great music, but have no exposure.

If only "1961" could be on the radio every other week this band would be selling records like bread.
... let me advise. Get IT NOW!
you wont regret it.
All the guitar riffs are edgy and leave you waiting for more, while the bass drifts off in melodic harmony through space...
And the Brass section compliments everything to a perfect state.
Positive, could be the perfect soundtrack for an oliver stone flick that talks about war, society and western civilization.
This music is poetry that will plasmate on your mind and take a blimp ride in your head for a while....

A Trashier Grassy Knoll Sound.......2002-03-06

I was remiss in following-up on this band, which I regret, but at least the albums are still available. You see, a few years back, I heard "Driving Nowhere" on a Nettwerk compilation CD and thought it was one of the coolest things to be committed to disc. Since then, I've accumulated some acid-jazz, disco, fusion, and electronic jazz to better appreciate what is happening on this album.

Alas, after hearing the self-titled debut album, this album, Positive, sounds like a trivialization of the welcoming sound previously rendered. It was a good effort, I suppose, but the over-indulgent sampling and electric guitar tended to subvert the improvisational instrumentation. This CD is more demanding of the listener's attention than the debut album, but I think less rewarding. It's no longer your own vision to invent. Perhaps that was the idea, if you're going to read into the conspiracy theory track names.

Jazzy Orb?.......2001-05-25

If you've seen and enjoyed the movie Conspiracy Theory, then you'll probably appreciate the first track, "Black Helicopters." That, actually, is the reason I searched for this CD about a year ago (and search I did!). I would describe The Grassy Knoll as a mix between the wonderful Orb and the good jazz you hear in nice restaraunts, but never ask the waitress about. The music, and defintely the titles, seem to have a lot of underlying paranoia-conspiracy themes, which, I think, makes the music fun and enjoyable. It's good music for the background (but not for falling asleep), or for playing loudly from your gray cublicle at the office on your last day. In other words, depending on the volume, it can be relaxing or obnoxious. Four stars because I don't listen to it often enough for five, but I do like the Grassy Knoll, although I'm no fanatic.

Average customer rating:

what was the name of the girl in the bar

The Grassy Knoll
The Grassy Knoll
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Acid Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Dance & DJ | Imports | Stores | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Positive
Goldbug

ASIN: B000024EUP
Release Date: 1996-03-19

Tracks:

Culture of Complaint
March Eighteenth
Unbelievable Truth
Altering the Gates of the Mind
Conversations With Julian Dexter
Floating Above the Earth
Less Than One
Low
Evolution 9
Beauty Within
Illusions of Peace
Spirit Slips Away
Left Becomes Right

Amazon.com

Album Description

1995 debut album. Universal.

Customer Reviews:

what was the name of the girl in the bar.......2004-06-04

hi bob, 10 years later and this still feels current

Average customer rating:

great !

Owasso Night Atlas

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Compilations | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000050HBC
Release Date: 2000-10-31

Tracks:

Mark Fauver - "Return to Innsmouth"
The International Bankers - "The Hunt for Bin Laden"
the grassy knoll - "sabbath's theatre"
Luther*McRae - "Erons"
BRINK - "Teen Sex MPEG"
Absorption - "Dead Slow"
Tentacle Improvisers - "Steel Mill Improvisation"
Christopher DeLaurenti - "Sylvian's Wood"
fognode - Orbiting Polly (Michael Shrieve remix)
Layng Martine III - "Globe"
baleen - "Assistance"
Chuey / Monhart / Rea - "Edge Trio"
Let's Say Baltimore - "When I Broke Into That House That Time"

Album Description

"Owasso Night Atlas" combines the ethos of dub and noise with the slipstrike power of beat-driven soundscapes and experimental musics. It is the first compilation from the Infrasound Collective - a vehicle for subversive music and art sabotage. "Owasso Night Atlas" premieres thirteen new works, including tracks by fognode::: (Michael Shrieve remix), urban legends Brink, beat assassin The Grassy Knoll, and aural iconoclast Layng Martine III (aka Corporal Blossom). New works also surface by Mark Fauver and dream mongers The International Bankers. East Coast mind pirates Baleen and Let's Say Baltimore weigh in with new recordings for this project as well. Compiled by Infrasound ubermind Brian Siskind, "Owasso Night Atlas" encompasses the restless worlds of margin and emergence, the lightstream of a desert star.

Customer Reviews:

great !.......2006-11-04

I teach Ballet, Modern, and Pointe. I choreograph for a Dance company and am constantly looking for interesting music to challenge both myself and my dancers. This CD provides an unusual assortment of musical styles from which to choose. I love it!
Nina Fedorovich

Music Review:

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