Members
Skip: Vocals & Harmonica
Past Projects: The Rebuilts, Little Elvis, The Monos
Past Projects: The Rebuilts, Little Elvis, The Monos
Freight Train Dane (Dane Didier): Drums
Past Projects: The Timothys, Tillie's Punctured Romance
Past Projects: The Timothys, Tillie's Punctured Romance
Graff: Guitar & Vocals
Past Projects: The Rebuilts, Haymarket Riot, Blue Sky Major, Secret 7, Figurehead, Altered State
Past Projects: The Rebuilts, Haymarket Riot, Blue Sky Major, Secret 7, Figurehead, Altered State
Lemonie Fresh: Bass & Vocals
Past Projects: Judy Priest, The Riveters, Eva Grubb
Past Projects: Judy Priest, The Riveters, Eva Grubb
Band Bio
Formed in August 2013, The Grovelers were a project conceived by life long friends vocalist Skip and guitarist Graff. They quickly added Dane on drums and bassist Lemonie Fresh.
Based out of Milwaukee, WI, The Grovelers are a high energy rock & roll band with a scorching original sound that draws influence from late 50’s rockabilly, early 60’s garage rock and 80’s punk rock.
Booking
Upcoming Shows
Videos
Cream City Nights (Official Video)
Suicide Rockers (Official Video)
Stunner (Official Video)
Sonic Sound (Official Video)
Sicko Live @ Sprecher's 30th Anniversary Bash opening for X
Romeo vs Juliet Live @ Sprecher's 30th Anniversary Bash opening for X
Still Human Live @ Matt "The Ratt" Benefit Show, Franks Power Plant
Southern Charm Live @ Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WI
Baby Come On Live @ Fish Day @ Newport Shores Restaurant, Port Washington
Suicide Rockers (Official Video)
Stunner (Official Video)
Sonic Sound (Official Video)
Sicko Live @ Sprecher's 30th Anniversary Bash opening for X
Romeo vs Juliet Live @ Sprecher's 30th Anniversary Bash opening for X
Still Human Live @ Matt "The Ratt" Benefit Show, Franks Power Plant
Southern Charm Live @ Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WI
Baby Come On Live @ Fish Day @ Newport Shores Restaurant, Port Washington
Press
The Grovelers don’t mess with the formula. For the past seven years, the Milwaukee group has delivered album after album of greasy, grimy rock ‘n’ roll, all shot through with dashes of rockabilly, garage, and punk. For the band’s 2015 debut, Derelicts and Screw-Ups, we wrote: “If you’re looking for subtlety in your music—poetic and tender lyrics, intricate and feather-light instrumentation—The Grovelers are not the band for you.” But The Grovelers remain a band for us, and their latest record, Misplaced Cars And Blackouts (recorded in Silver City and mixed by Shane Olivo), may be their best yet.
Opener “Heartbreak Love Machine” sets the tone with a no-nonsense shit-kicker featuring vocalist Skip (yep, just Skip) and bassist Lemonie Fresh shouting out the song’s chorus/title. Guitarist Graff, meanwhile, tosses in some sun-scorched solos. “Rock Bottom” is an early album highlight, a fist-pumping anthem to, well, hitting rock bottom, complete with a Ramones-esque chant, some sleazy harmonica, and, yes, bagpipes. All throughout, drummer Dane Didier provides a pummeling beat worthy of a daylong hangover.
Cementing its status as a summer album, Misplaced Cars And Blackouts contains two sand-infused beach ditties: the hilariously titled “Ahhh Hey!” (featuring lead vocals from Lemonie Fresh), and the delightfully kitschy “Groveling Flamingo.” The latter is largely instrumental, but it does offer up some unintentional dance instructions for anyone interested in doing the Groveling Flamingo: “Puts both feet down and shuts one eye.” It’s a dance craze sweeping the nation!
Elsewhere, the stomping and strutting “More Time With You” proves to be the record’s heaviest track, while “Hot Mess” and “I Love Everything” find The Grovelers at their most frantic and flailing. But the band saves the best for last: “Another Day” and the nearly four-minute closer “Distance Between” mix things up (relatively speaking) for two of the group’s most dynamic songs yet. “I stare out at the faces in the crowd / Thoughts of one, their shouts a fading hum,” Skip howls in the latter. “It’s the ache I have to bear, it is the mask I have to wear / And I just wish you cared.”
It’s an unexpectedly poignant end to the album. Maybe The Grovelers are getting a taste for messing with the formula after all.
- Matt Wild | The Milwaukee Record | June 21stth, 2022
Make it a sleazy summer with The Grovelers’ new record, ‘Misplaced Cars And Blackouts’
Misplaced Cars & Blackouts - "It's a very tropical pop. It's very, very summery. There's a lot of marimba involved, it just makes you feel like you're on a beach and you're soaking up the sun. So, it's very appropriate that they typically release a lot of their records in the summertime," says Wild. "The album art, which is an old picture of like an old dad in the '70s passed out on a like '70s couch, just really perfectly sums up the vibe of what the Grovelers are doing. ... It's a lot of fun. Maybe one of their best ones," he shares.
- Matt Wild & Joy Powers | Milwaukee Music Round up | June 30th, 2022
Milwaukee Music Roundup: Explorers, The Grovelers, Peter Mulvey & SistaStrings, Velocihamster”
At almost a decade in and around the Milwaukee punk scene, The Grovelers have mastered the art of the rock and roll party song. You can hear that on “Misplaced Cars and Blackouts,” the band’s most recent album, which is a full-fledged, anthemic party record. There’s not a lot of reinventing the wheel here, because there frankly doesn’t need to be. The band just write great, catchy songs that will have you singing and bopping along at every turn. Most of the songs don’t crack the three-minute barrier, and that’s perfectly fine, because the band sound like they’re putting their all into these cuts. “Misplaced Cars and Blackouts” is your summer soundtrack to a booze-fueled blowout, and also a hell of a record to consume while sober, too.
- Allen Halas | Breaking & Entering | June 01, 2022
THE GROVELERS – “MISPLACED CARS AND BLACKOUTS”
Milwaukee rock ‘n’ rollers The Grovelers are premiering a music video for title track “Cream City Nights” — shot in a gritty noir around the underground music scene of the city. Director Mike Finch achieved the look with handheld black and white to “help show the kinetic nature of being out on the town.” The protagonist played by reality TV personality Kat Flores (Oxygen network’s “Bad Girls Club”) with plenty of attitude as she searches the “cream city” for a good time and a mysterious jukebox. The band wanted a positive ending and director Finch says, “The wandering femme fatale would find the jukebox, but also her tribe, her people, after so many misses along the way.”
- Amelinda Burich| 88nine Radio Milwaukee | January 09, 2020
Join The Grovelers for a night in Cream City
Bassist Lemonie Fresh strolls onstage, takes her pink purse from her shoulder and sets it down. She could have been walking into a Riverwest coffee shop. Except she straps in for The Grovelers' performance Tuesday at Summerfest’s Uline Warehouse. The Milwaukee band offered a set of songs that were short bursts of adrenaline, as evidenced by the blood vessels showing in singer Skip’s neck. His heavily reverbed Elvis-from-Hell vocal stylings are the immediate tipoff where this band has dug its roots. It has been written that Rockabilly shall inherit the Earth, and The Grovelers sound intent on carving out a chapter. It is always interesting to witness how a local band used to playing local bars with substandard public address systems adapts to a big outdoor stage. The Grovelers easily met the challenge, aiming their garage sound beyond the last row and out into Lake Michigan, before the skies darkened and Mother Nature offered up her squall. “We also like to puke out the classics,” said Skip before the band launched into Ray Charles’ “Night Time is The Right Time.” They also delivered thoughtful recitations of standards “Please Give Me Something” and “Muleskinner Blues” for the agricultural portion of the set. Nearing the end of the show members of next act Good Boy Daisy walked across the stage, looking down their noses in disdain as guitarist Graff stomped on a nasty fuzz box. It was obvious the Grovelers were doing something right.
- Blaine Schultz | Shepherd Express | July 02, 2019
Show Review: The Storm Before the Storm—Controlled Chaos of The Grovelers
"Subtlety isn’t among The Grovelers’ strong suits. But good for them! Otherwise, the Milwaukee quartet’s animated blur of rockabilly with ’60s and ’70s punk wouldn’t be nearly the audacious thrill ride they make it on their second album, Cream City Nights. Singer Skip (most Grovelers don’t bother with last names) puts his comically snotty lyrics through many elongations and variations à la Lux Interior and Mojo Nixon. But, as evidenced by a catholicity of influence that allows for howling harmonica and echoes of ghostly surf guitar, the band reconfigures mid-20th-century underground roots rock to their own manic ends. And when they do approach nuance, when bassist-singer Lemonie Fresh begins one number in the manner of a lonesome country weeper, soon enough the proceedings revert back to cacophony."
- Jamie Lee Rake | Shepherd Express | June 11, 2019
The Grovelers: Cream City Nights Album Review
"Alt-country stalwarts The Bottle Rockets were supposed to have opened for (Shooter) Jennings, but one member’s family emergency allowed crazed Milwaukeeans The Grovelers to pick up the slack. Where aggro rockabilly, pummeling surf rock, snotty garage punk and vein-popping punk of the hardcore variety converge is where the band’s sweet spot lies. They mined that epicenter with giddy, intense vigor through a slew of skewed tunes. Lead singer Skip played his occasional harmonica solos into the earpiece of a rotary telephone’s handset for a goofy gimmick (though perhaps of some practicality, as his mouth harp is on the small side), while mutton-chopped guitarist Graff showboated like an adrenalized peacock. They made for a fun prelude to what would have already been a fulsome evening of music."
- Jamie Lee Rake | Shepherd Express
Show Review: Shooter Jennings Shared His Individualistic Take on Country
Derelicts & Screw-Ups made the #2 slot for "Best In 2015" on Madison's Leopard Print Lounge, WORT 89. It also made 91.7FM "WMSE Picks of 2015" Lists on Buzz's Garage, The Zero Hour, and on Overnight Sensations!
91.7 WMSE Picks of 2015 | WORT 89 The Leopard Print Lounge, Best In 2015
"A fine slab of screaming rock n roll"
– Jenny of Leopard Print Lounge | 89.9 WORT Madison, WI
"If you’re looking for subtlety in your music—poetic and tender lyrics, intricate and feather-light instrumentation—The Grovelers are not the band for you.... perfectly sleazy rock and roll. Looking for subtlety? Get in the van and look somewhere else."
- Matt Wild | Milwaukee Record | July 14, 2015
Derelicts and Screw-ups CD Review
"The Grovelers at Kochanski's: Finally, finally, finally got out to see this band, and I'm glad I did. Lemonie Fressh is the bass player here, and she's been in a pile of good bands,but sometimes it takes a while to find the right band for the right player, and this is it. Her melodic but psychedelic style and sensibilities are exactly the right fit for this band, and this is the right band for her: this really neat combination of garage trash and Americana (I don't want to call it country, but maybe it is), played by people who have also heard of Devo and the Residents. They're set for a triple bill with Couch Flambeau and Go Go Slow (another band that's on my "why haven't I seen them yet?" list) later this month. I can't wait. "
- Veronica Rusnak | The Sixth Station Blog
Opener “Heartbreak Love Machine” sets the tone with a no-nonsense shit-kicker featuring vocalist Skip (yep, just Skip) and bassist Lemonie Fresh shouting out the song’s chorus/title. Guitarist Graff, meanwhile, tosses in some sun-scorched solos. “Rock Bottom” is an early album highlight, a fist-pumping anthem to, well, hitting rock bottom, complete with a Ramones-esque chant, some sleazy harmonica, and, yes, bagpipes. All throughout, drummer Dane Didier provides a pummeling beat worthy of a daylong hangover.
Cementing its status as a summer album, Misplaced Cars And Blackouts contains two sand-infused beach ditties: the hilariously titled “Ahhh Hey!” (featuring lead vocals from Lemonie Fresh), and the delightfully kitschy “Groveling Flamingo.” The latter is largely instrumental, but it does offer up some unintentional dance instructions for anyone interested in doing the Groveling Flamingo: “Puts both feet down and shuts one eye.” It’s a dance craze sweeping the nation!
Elsewhere, the stomping and strutting “More Time With You” proves to be the record’s heaviest track, while “Hot Mess” and “I Love Everything” find The Grovelers at their most frantic and flailing. But the band saves the best for last: “Another Day” and the nearly four-minute closer “Distance Between” mix things up (relatively speaking) for two of the group’s most dynamic songs yet. “I stare out at the faces in the crowd / Thoughts of one, their shouts a fading hum,” Skip howls in the latter. “It’s the ache I have to bear, it is the mask I have to wear / And I just wish you cared.”
It’s an unexpectedly poignant end to the album. Maybe The Grovelers are getting a taste for messing with the formula after all.
- Matt Wild | The Milwaukee Record | June 21stth, 2022
Make it a sleazy summer with The Grovelers’ new record, ‘Misplaced Cars And Blackouts’
Misplaced Cars & Blackouts - "It's a very tropical pop. It's very, very summery. There's a lot of marimba involved, it just makes you feel like you're on a beach and you're soaking up the sun. So, it's very appropriate that they typically release a lot of their records in the summertime," says Wild. "The album art, which is an old picture of like an old dad in the '70s passed out on a like '70s couch, just really perfectly sums up the vibe of what the Grovelers are doing. ... It's a lot of fun. Maybe one of their best ones," he shares.
- Matt Wild & Joy Powers | Milwaukee Music Round up | June 30th, 2022
Milwaukee Music Roundup: Explorers, The Grovelers, Peter Mulvey & SistaStrings, Velocihamster”
At almost a decade in and around the Milwaukee punk scene, The Grovelers have mastered the art of the rock and roll party song. You can hear that on “Misplaced Cars and Blackouts,” the band’s most recent album, which is a full-fledged, anthemic party record. There’s not a lot of reinventing the wheel here, because there frankly doesn’t need to be. The band just write great, catchy songs that will have you singing and bopping along at every turn. Most of the songs don’t crack the three-minute barrier, and that’s perfectly fine, because the band sound like they’re putting their all into these cuts. “Misplaced Cars and Blackouts” is your summer soundtrack to a booze-fueled blowout, and also a hell of a record to consume while sober, too.
- Allen Halas | Breaking & Entering | June 01, 2022
THE GROVELERS – “MISPLACED CARS AND BLACKOUTS”
Milwaukee rock ‘n’ rollers The Grovelers are premiering a music video for title track “Cream City Nights” — shot in a gritty noir around the underground music scene of the city. Director Mike Finch achieved the look with handheld black and white to “help show the kinetic nature of being out on the town.” The protagonist played by reality TV personality Kat Flores (Oxygen network’s “Bad Girls Club”) with plenty of attitude as she searches the “cream city” for a good time and a mysterious jukebox. The band wanted a positive ending and director Finch says, “The wandering femme fatale would find the jukebox, but also her tribe, her people, after so many misses along the way.”
- Amelinda Burich| 88nine Radio Milwaukee | January 09, 2020
Join The Grovelers for a night in Cream City
Bassist Lemonie Fresh strolls onstage, takes her pink purse from her shoulder and sets it down. She could have been walking into a Riverwest coffee shop. Except she straps in for The Grovelers' performance Tuesday at Summerfest’s Uline Warehouse. The Milwaukee band offered a set of songs that were short bursts of adrenaline, as evidenced by the blood vessels showing in singer Skip’s neck. His heavily reverbed Elvis-from-Hell vocal stylings are the immediate tipoff where this band has dug its roots. It has been written that Rockabilly shall inherit the Earth, and The Grovelers sound intent on carving out a chapter. It is always interesting to witness how a local band used to playing local bars with substandard public address systems adapts to a big outdoor stage. The Grovelers easily met the challenge, aiming their garage sound beyond the last row and out into Lake Michigan, before the skies darkened and Mother Nature offered up her squall. “We also like to puke out the classics,” said Skip before the band launched into Ray Charles’ “Night Time is The Right Time.” They also delivered thoughtful recitations of standards “Please Give Me Something” and “Muleskinner Blues” for the agricultural portion of the set. Nearing the end of the show members of next act Good Boy Daisy walked across the stage, looking down their noses in disdain as guitarist Graff stomped on a nasty fuzz box. It was obvious the Grovelers were doing something right.
- Blaine Schultz | Shepherd Express | July 02, 2019
Show Review: The Storm Before the Storm—Controlled Chaos of The Grovelers
"Subtlety isn’t among The Grovelers’ strong suits. But good for them! Otherwise, the Milwaukee quartet’s animated blur of rockabilly with ’60s and ’70s punk wouldn’t be nearly the audacious thrill ride they make it on their second album, Cream City Nights. Singer Skip (most Grovelers don’t bother with last names) puts his comically snotty lyrics through many elongations and variations à la Lux Interior and Mojo Nixon. But, as evidenced by a catholicity of influence that allows for howling harmonica and echoes of ghostly surf guitar, the band reconfigures mid-20th-century underground roots rock to their own manic ends. And when they do approach nuance, when bassist-singer Lemonie Fresh begins one number in the manner of a lonesome country weeper, soon enough the proceedings revert back to cacophony."
- Jamie Lee Rake | Shepherd Express | June 11, 2019
The Grovelers: Cream City Nights Album Review
"Alt-country stalwarts The Bottle Rockets were supposed to have opened for (Shooter) Jennings, but one member’s family emergency allowed crazed Milwaukeeans The Grovelers to pick up the slack. Where aggro rockabilly, pummeling surf rock, snotty garage punk and vein-popping punk of the hardcore variety converge is where the band’s sweet spot lies. They mined that epicenter with giddy, intense vigor through a slew of skewed tunes. Lead singer Skip played his occasional harmonica solos into the earpiece of a rotary telephone’s handset for a goofy gimmick (though perhaps of some practicality, as his mouth harp is on the small side), while mutton-chopped guitarist Graff showboated like an adrenalized peacock. They made for a fun prelude to what would have already been a fulsome evening of music."
- Jamie Lee Rake | Shepherd Express
Show Review: Shooter Jennings Shared His Individualistic Take on Country
Derelicts & Screw-Ups made the #2 slot for "Best In 2015" on Madison's Leopard Print Lounge, WORT 89. It also made 91.7FM "WMSE Picks of 2015" Lists on Buzz's Garage, The Zero Hour, and on Overnight Sensations!
91.7 WMSE Picks of 2015 | WORT 89 The Leopard Print Lounge, Best In 2015
"A fine slab of screaming rock n roll"
– Jenny of Leopard Print Lounge | 89.9 WORT Madison, WI
"If you’re looking for subtlety in your music—poetic and tender lyrics, intricate and feather-light instrumentation—The Grovelers are not the band for you.... perfectly sleazy rock and roll. Looking for subtlety? Get in the van and look somewhere else."
- Matt Wild | Milwaukee Record | July 14, 2015
Derelicts and Screw-ups CD Review
"The Grovelers at Kochanski's: Finally, finally, finally got out to see this band, and I'm glad I did. Lemonie Fressh is the bass player here, and she's been in a pile of good bands,but sometimes it takes a while to find the right band for the right player, and this is it. Her melodic but psychedelic style and sensibilities are exactly the right fit for this band, and this is the right band for her: this really neat combination of garage trash and Americana (I don't want to call it country, but maybe it is), played by people who have also heard of Devo and the Residents. They're set for a triple bill with Couch Flambeau and Go Go Slow (another band that's on my "why haven't I seen them yet?" list) later this month. I can't wait. "
- Veronica Rusnak | The Sixth Station Blog
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