The Grave Diggers were an American rockabilly, surf, jazz, punk band. They are notable due to their eclectic musical style, their early foreshadowing of subsequent music revival movements, and the musical careers of their members. The band was established in Southern California in early 1983 by friends and classmates Jason Goodman (vocals/guitar), Wally Hersom (upright bass), Michael "Mick" McCarthy (guitar) and Quinn Millard (drums). In 1985, they released the self-recorded four-song EP "Monsters At Play" on Bobbette Records. The band played shows around Southern California, opening for and playing with various rockabilly, surf, roots and garage artists including

Tav Falco Gustavo Antonio "Tav" Falco is an American-born musician, performance artist, filmmaker, actor, author, photographer, and dancer. Falco has fronted the rock band Tav Falco's Panther Burns since 1979, and founded a parallel solo career that inco ...

, The Untold Fables, Saddle Sores,

Rockin' Rebels The Rebels (also known as The Rockin' Rebels) were a band from Buffalo, New York, known for their instrumental "Wild Weekend". The original members were Jim Kipler (Guitar), Mick Kipler (Saxophone), Tom Gorman (Drums) and Paul Balon (Bass/Guitar). ...

James Intveld James Intveld (born November 12, 1959) is an American rockabilly musician, singer, songwriter, performer, actor, and film director from Los Angeles, California, United States. Early career Born in the Netherlands, Intveld's parents moved to C ...

, The Red Devils, The Blazers, Eddie Nichols, Russell Scott, The Beguiled, Melvis & the Megatones and Bobbi Brat.Kaiser, Michael
Transcript of Interview with Jason Goodman
Popsike. Retrieved 26 April 2014. In 1989, they released the full-length LP "Move It" on

Crypt Records Crypt Records is an independent record label founded by American-born Tim Warren in 1983. The label has been headquartered variously in Hamburg, Germany and in several locations in the United States. Crypt is perhaps best known for issuing the ten- ...

."Gravediggers, The (2) – Move It!"
Discogs. Retrieved 26 April 2014. "Move It" was recorded at Coyote Studios in Brooklyn, New York, during a one-day session that yielded twenty-five songs, ten of which were never released. The album was produced by British musician

Billy Childish Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper, 1 December 1959) is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has le ...

and featured album artwork by Cliff Mott. During that trip to New York, the band played two nights at Crypt Record's Bad Music Seminar alongside bands such as

Thee Mighty Caesars Thee Mighty Caesars were a Medway scene garage/punk group, formed by Billy Childish (vocals/guitar) in 1985 after the demise of The Milkshakes, alongside John Agnew (bass) and Graham Day (drums), who initially was still also in fellow Medway ...

, The Raunch Hands,

The A-Bones The A-Bones was an American garage rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their name was derived from a song by The Trashmen. The band was formed in 1984 by vocalist Billy Miller and his wife, drummer and co-vocalist Miriam Linna, in the wake of a p ...

and Rat Bastards. The band returned to Southern California and promptly broke up. Bassist Wally Hersom went on to play with

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys is an American rockabilly and Western swing band from California composed of Robert Williams, alias Big Sandy, Ashley Kingman, Ricky McCann and Kevin Stewart. The band is known for its eclectic style, which encompass ...

. Guitarist Mick McCarthy and drummer Quinn Millard went on to form the band Medicine Rattle, which released the 1992 album "Unbottled", produced by

Billy Zoom Billy Zoom (born Stuart Tyson Kindell; February 20, 1948) is an American guitarist, best known as one of the founders of the punk rock band X. At 68 years old, Zoom was diagnosed in 2015 with an aggressive form of bladder cancer and began imme ...

of the punk band X, on the label Earth Music. Vocalist Jason Goodman went on to play with The Blazers and the ska band Jump With Joey. In retrospect, The Grave Diggers' eclectic mix of swing, jazz, trash, garage and punk was ahead of its time, a 1980s precursor to the

swing revival The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music, beginning around 1989 and reaching a peak from the early/mid to late 1990s. The music was generally rooted in the big bands of the swing era of the ...

and

garage rock revival Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

of the late 1990s and early 2000s. More than twenty years after the band's breakup, copies of the Bobbette EP were being sought by collectors despite the songs being legally available on-line. In 2013, Tim Warren of Crypt Records re-released the "Move It" LP as a double

gatefold A gatefold cover or gatefold LP is a form of packaging for LP records that became popular in the mid-1960s. A gatefold cover, when folded, is the same size as a standard LP cover (i.e., a 12½ inch, or 32.7 centimetre square). The larger gatefo ...

featuring archival photos of the band, art by guitarist Mick McCarthy, and liner notes by rock critic Chris Morris and Bobbette Records owner Mark Lee Goodale."GRAVEDIGGERS - Move It! LP"
. Crazy Love Records. Retrieved 26 April 2014. The ten unreleased songs from the Coyote Studios session remain unreleased.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grave Diggers Rockabilly music groups