The Mother Hips

The Mother Hips continue to add chapters to one of the most enduring runs in California rock. With ‘California Current’ arriving in 2024 and ‘When We Disappear’ released in 2023, the San Francisco Bay Area band pairs its latest studio work with a live catalog that includes 2019’s ‘Live at the Great American Music Hall’, recorded at the legendary venue they have headlined for decades.

The group took shape at California State University-Chico, where Tim Bluhm (vocals/guitar), Greg Loiacono (guitar/vocals), Isaac Parsons (bass), and Mike Wofchuck (drums) met in 1990 and got serious as a rock band in early 1991. Their debut, ‘Back to the Grotto’, arrived in February 1993 and quickly drew major label attention, landing them on Rick Rubin’s American Recordings while they were still students.

Signed alongside labelmates Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, and the Black Crowes, the band re-released ‘Back to the Grotto’ in March 1995 and followed with ‘Part-Timer Goes Full’ that August, supporting it on the 1995 H.O.R.D.E. festival. They sold 2,400 tickets at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds and headlined the Fillmore in San Francisco before releasing ‘Shootout’ in October 1996.

Now comprising Bluhm, Loiacono, John Hofer, and Brian Rashap, the band has issued more than a dozen albums since the 1990s, from ‘Green Hills of Earth’ (2001) to ‘Glowing Lantern’ (2021), with Bluhm also active in the Skinny Singers alongside Jackie Greene.