Grubstake is:


PW McHugh - guitar, vocals, bass, claps

Dave McMullin - drums, vocals

Charlie Mayer - accordion, hooter/melodica

miscreant associates:

Steve NOTV - drums, percussions & objects, claps, glockenspiel, microphones

Rocket1000 - drums, backup vocals

Lex Marburger - electronic interphasings

Grubstake's ethos is simple: keep it dirty, sing about zombies & paranoia, and include plenty of scuzzy blues licks. They've shredded clubs all over the Northeast US with their gutteral, raw sound. Critics have noticed: The Noise magazine calls Grubstake "indie rock at its best" and Amanda Nichols of The Weekly Dig says, "Like Andy Warhol attempting an Impressionist portrait of Elvis, Grubstake manages to mix the humor of Ween, Richard Hell's punk snickers and the 'dropout blues' of early Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band with charm, skill, and reckless abandon."

Since relocating back to his hometown of Philadelphia, head 'staker Patrick McHugh has been moving away from the studio polish of 2007's The Bestest, and putting the focus back on the lean and mean guitar & drums boogie of the band's 2008 release "Make An Animal Noise".

PRESS

"Named for an arcane mining term, Grubstake have been hammering out mud–caked guitar–drum blues for about a decade now. Patrick McHugh led the band in Boston for much of that time before returning to his old stomping grounds in Philly and nabbing drummer/engineer Steve Bozzone to make a fifth album, Make An Animal Noise. It’s another gritty, ground–down outing, with McHugh hollering about TV dinners and other mundane miseries on 'Delaware' and trafficking heavily in spite on 'Sophisticated Whore'. Most garage–rock duos putter out when they cease to mix things up musically, but McHugh’s been around long enough to know when to throw a wrench into the works."
-Philadelphia Weekly

"Post punk rock from Philly sounds like The Talking Heads, Thin Lizzy, with Minutemen style fast driven riffs, and Pixies-esque vocal harmonies. Great Stuff."
-Jake Rabid/Y-Rock on WXPN

"Essential listening, and for the late-night partying crowd, the jam of the summer."
-CHORD Magazine

"While many journalists have heralded The Black Keys and The White Stripes as the coming of 'blues for the 21st Century' or 'nu' blues, my vote is cast for Grubstake as the bearers of that title. This is NOT for traditional blues fans but for the adventurous listener looking to see where the blues will go in this century and who will take it there.
- PA Musician Magazine

"We really like Grubstake, based on their fine CD The Bestest, with its great cover of Neil Young's 'Albuquerque' and some original deconstructionist blues."
- Philadelphia Inquirer