Wisconsin-born banjo and fiddle player Peter Stampfel grew up with a taste for old-time country and traditional folk music and after he met Pennsylvania-born country-rock guitarist Steve Weber in New York City in the early 1960s, they performed under various names before settling on the Holy Modal Rounders. The band earned a cult following for its mix of folk, country, rock and psychedelia and made several albums through to 1978.
Regarded as an oddball addition to the folk craze of the '60s, the duo have joined other artists to play in different bands such as The Village Fugs and the Moray Eels and invited other players to join the Holy Modal Rounders line-up such as keyboard player Lee Crabtree and drummer Sam Shepard.
Their first album 'The Holy Modal Rounders' was released in 1964 followed by 'The Holy Modal Rounders 2' in 1965. That year, Stampfel and Weber joined two Greenwich Village poets, Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, and drummer Ken Weaver in the Village Fugs. They released an album titled 'The Village Fugs Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views, and General Dissatisfaction', noted for its comedy and outrageous lyrics. Further Fugs albums were slapped with the record industry's advisory sticker 'For Adult Minds Only'.
The 1967 album 'Indian War Hoop' saw Stampfel and Weber back as the Holy Modal Rounders, joined by keyboardist Richard Tyler, John Wesley Annis on bass and drummer Shepard, who had played in another Stampfel band, the Moray Eels. They stayed for the Rounders' fourth album, 'The Moral Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders' (1968) but, aside from Annis, they were gone by the time 'Good Taste Is Timeless' came out in 1971.
The band was quiet for 20 years following the 1978 release of 'Last Round' during which time Stampfel recorded with another group, the Bottlecaps. They rejoined in 1999 for 'Too Much Fun!' but subsequent albums were a compilation release, 'I Make a Wish for a Potato' in 2001, 'Live in 1965' in 2002 and 'Bird Song - Live 1971' in 2004. A DVD production, 'The Holy Modal Rounders - Bound to Lose', came out in 2007 featuring old footage of live performances and studio work, featuring guests including Dennis Hopper, John Sebastian, Loudon Wainwright III and Peter Tork.
