The Grip Weeds

The Grip Weeds drew their moniker from John Lennon’s Private Gripweed role in the 1967 film How I Won the War. Deeply rooted in 1960s rock, this New Jersey quartet cultivates a retro-psychedelic sound shaped by British Invasion power pop from the Who, the Kinks, and the Beatles’ Revolver period, alongside the jangly Southern California style of the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. Frequently likened to fellow Garden State rockers the Smithereens, the band shares an affinity for British Invasion material yet diverges sharply in tone; Grip Weeds singer and drummer Kurt Reil teamed with Smithereens percussionist Dennis Diken and guitarist Jim Babjak in the 1990s side project Jim Babjak’s Buzzed Meg, underscoring mutual respect without stylistic overlap—the Grip Weeds’ psychedelic leanings setting them apart from the Smithereens’ tougher, grittier approach.

Formed in New Brunswick, New Jersey, during the late 1980s, the group united when Reil and his brother, singer-guitarist Rick Reil, joined forces with guitarist-singer Kristin Pinell and bassist Michael Nattboy. After several years performing throughout the East Coast club circuit, the Grip Weeds issued the 1992 EP See You Through on Ground Up. Their debut full-length, House of Vibes, followed on the same label in 1994, succeeded by The Sound Is in You, released in 1998 on Buy or Die. Rainbow Quartz issued Summer of a Thousand Years in 2001, then re-released The Sound Is in You with additional tracks two years later. The band returned with Giant on the Beach on Rainbow Quartz in 2004, and the ambitious double-disc set Strange Change Machine appeared in 2010.