Grabass Charlestons

Will Thomas (Vocals and Drums)
PJ Fancher (Guitars)
Dave Drobach (Bass and Vocals)
Grabass is a friendship. Grabass is a proud product of a town they love. Grabass drive a stubby van and will drink you legless if they come through your town. Grabass is a story of a bunch of people having shitty jobs, getting together, and making a band.
Three dudes, serious about their ridiculousness, found each other in Gainesville, a passion-filled, non-plastic ding dong swamp town in Florida, where having a good time is often a full time job. Think of Gainesville as the unheralded fourth member of the band. It’s relatively easy to record there, easy to find people to make music with, and easy to get shows. It’s cheap. A hotbed.
Grabass got together, circa 2000. Charleston, WV native Will Thomas (aka Dub T) cleaned out the fish tanks at No Idea. This former Chinese food deliverer and current line cook had been a drummer for the Beltones, the Lexingtons, and the Habituals. He had songs in his head and he’d put them to paper. He wanted to get them out of his head and play them live. He wanted a band that was direct. No bullshittin’, full of humility and passion.
Enter Replay Dave and Peej. Replay is a dependable, and arrestable, bassist. He’s also the scribe of the zine Coffeebreath, graduate from DeLand High School in 1994, No Idea task completer, a proud holder of a degree in philosophy, and has been dressing up as a convincing leprechaun for over a decade. Replay and Will had played together in the Lexingtons. Add Peej, a Santa Fe Community College graduate with a degree in computer
programming (and current No Idea interwebdude and technological spearhead), and an effortless and extremely gifted guitar player with privileges to a badass summer home of a famous rock star relative. Bang! You’ve got yourself a band. They practiced for a year in Peej’s home. Much liquor was slaughtered in the name of rock’n’roll.
All three are compulsive gamblers, jubilant jai alai enthusiasts (with matching tattoos, cestas raised high and proudly), and vigilant hometown gentlemen.
By 2002, they had a split record out with Billy Reese Peters (a band that shares Will and Peej) and they toured. People clapped after their sets and purchased their records. Late 2003 saw the release of their triumphant first record, “The Greatest Story Ever Hula’d”. There was much rejoicing and much touring. Grabass toured the U.S. with friends Against Me! and Lucero, then doubled back to drink every east coast town dry with Dillinger Four.
The beginning of 2004 saw Dave become a semi-pro gambler. He won two months rent and “a really sweet sleeping bag.” The guys toured Europe for six weeks in the summer and Will quipped, “I guess we could say we’re better than every other band in the world, but then we’d really sound like assholes.”
2005 brings us to their newest full-length offering, “Ask Mark Twain”, and a full US tour with their partners in party crime the Soviettes (Fat Wreck Chords). The combo will also be playing shows with the Tim Version, J Church, Big Business, Toys That Kill, Japanther, and the Arrivals.
What does that translate into? It translates to fuckin’ high fives. —TODD TAYLOR / RAZORCAKE.