A Grape Dope is the moniker of John Herndon, drummer, music producer, and
founding member of the iconic musical group Tortoise. His discography includes
recordings with Isotope 217, Five Style, Starlicker, Exploding Star Orchestra,
Pulsar Quartet, Poster Children, and more. He is a longtime visual artist with a
body of work that includes painting, illustration, embroidery, tattooing, collage, and
hand painted t-shirts.

Herndon's debut solo album, Arthur King Presents A Grape Dope: Backyard
Bangers, is the amalgamation of many eclectic influences. It is a record impossible
to tag with any one genre yet assured in its execution. Backyard
Bangers consolidates blasts of experimental hip hop beats, grinding lo-fi house
grooves, clattering noise passages, and even subdued synth ambience into a
concise and colorful 32 minute journey. Predominantly constructed in a Northeast
Los Angeles garage, the album is rounded out with musical contributions by
celebrated artist Travis Millard (The Other Fudge) and rare vocals from Mr.
Herndon himself. Backyard Bangers is being released as an installment in
Dangerbird Records' Arthur King Presents experimental album series.

John on A Grape Dope’s Backyard Bangers:
"A Grape Dope started before I was a father. When kids came along, the energy it
took to make solo records happily went into being dad. Now that they are older
and more self sufficient, there is time to push some noise around. The music has
once more become A Grape Dope.

“Grape dope is an Appalachian slang term for a grape soda. One of the first
people I played music with, when I was a kid, growing up in western North
Carolina, would always ask me to get him ‘a grape dope’ when the school bus
would stop for snacks at the gas station on the way home from high school. My
friend didn’t make it past 12th grade and the name, A Grape Dope, is an homage
to my friend and the eternal feeling of discovering new music.

"This record is a collage of sounds - found and recorded in various places and in
various ways and then glued together with some rhythm, some space, melody,
harmony and noise. I hope it reads like a slice of my record collection: hip hop,
punk, disco, jazz, metal, noise, house, techno, comedy, etc.

“I’m primarily a drummer and some of the music I like most makes me want to
jump around, dance and headbang. I was trying to make a record that would make
me feel these things with the hopes that it would make you feel these things as
well. Y’all can dance if ya wanna. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”