Giant Sand is an American rock band

Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

, based in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

, USA. The name is shortened from the original Giant Sandworms, a reference to the creatures in the Dune

Dune universe

Dune is a science fiction franchise which originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Considered by many to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history...

books. Overseen by singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Howe Gelb

Howe Gelb

Howe Gelb is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer based in Tucson, Arizona.-Projects:Gelb's approach to music is collaborative and he has recorded with a number of side projects...

, its membership has shifted over the years—at times with each album. For a long while the band's rhythm section

Rhythm section

A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...

 consisted of John Convertino and Joey Burns who left the band when their side project, Calexico, grew more widely known than Giant Sand and, as Gelb characterized it in 2004, Calexico "began to work against Giant Sand and eat away at what the band was".

Other members have included keyboardist Chris Cacavas (of Green on Red

Green on Red

Green on Red was an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground...

), bassist Paula Jean Brown (who was briefly a member of The Go-Go's

The Go-Go's

The Go-Go’s are an all-female American rock band formed in 1978. They made history as the first all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the Billboard album charts....

 and was married to Gelb at the time, Mark Walton (of The Dream Syndicate and Continental Drifters

Continental Drifters

The Continental Drifters was an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1991 and dissolved in New Orleans, Louisiana about a decade later...

), drummer Tom Larkins (later to become a Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic backing...

 sideman). and Iain Shedden, drummer with Australian band The Saints.

Guest artists have included Victoria Williams

Victoria Williams

Victoria Williams is an American singer-songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. She is noted for her descriptive songwriting talent, which she has used to immerse the listener of her songs into a...

, Neko Case

Neko Case

Neko Case is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers....

, Juliana Hatfield

Juliana Hatfield

Juliana Hatfield , is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter and author from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies and Some Girls. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

, PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey

Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...

, Vic Chesnutt

Vic Chesnutt

James Victor "Vic" Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success didn't come until 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a tribute album of mainstream artists...

, Steve Wynn

Steve Wynn (songwriter)

Steve Wynn is a songwriter based in New York . He led the band the Dream Syndicate from 1981 to 1989 and afterward began a solo career.- Career in bands :...

, Vicki Peterson

Vicki Peterson

Vicki Peterson is an American rock musician ....

, Rainer Ptacek

Rainer Ptacek

Rainer Ptacek was a Tucson, Arizona based guitarist and singer-songwriter. His guitar technique, which incorporated slide, finger-picking, tape loops and electronic manipulation, earned him admiration of some notable musicians such as Robert Plant and Billy Gibbons...

, M. Ward

M. Ward

Matthew Stephen Ward, known by his stage name M. Ward, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist who rose to prominence in the Portland, Oregon music scene. In addition to his solo work he is known as a member of She & Him and Monsters of Folk.-Career:...

, Isobel Campbell

Isobel Campbell

Isobel Campbell is a Scottish singer, cellist and composer in the indie and rock genres.-History:Campbell was a member of Belle & Sebastian from their formation in Glasgow in 1996 until 2002, when she departed the band for personal reasons. She played cello and keyboards with the band, and sang...

 nearly all members of the band Poi Dog Pondering

Poi Dog Pondering

Poi Dog Pondering is an American musical group, noted for its cross-pollination of diverse musical genres, including various forms of acoustic folk music, and electronic music. Founded in Hawaii in 1985, the band moved to Austin, Texas in 1987, where they recorded their first three albums...

, and regular cameos from Jello Biafra

Jello Biafra

Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...

 and Gelb and Brown's daughter, Indiosa Patsy Jean.

Discography

• Valley of Rain (1985)
• Ballad of a Thin Line Man (1986)
• Storm (1987)
• The Love Songs (1988)
• Long Stem Rant (1989)
• Swerve (1990)
• Ramp (1991)
• Center of the Universe (1992)
• Stromausfall (1993)
• Purge & Slouch (1994)
• Glum (1994)
• Goods and Services (1995)
• Backyard Barbecue Broadcast (1995)
• Build Your Own Night It's Easy (1997)
• Chore of Enchantment
  Chore of Enchantment
  Chore of Enchantment is an album by the American rock band Giant Sand. It was released March 7, 2000 by the Chicago record label, Thrill Jockey.-Track listing:All tracks were written by Howe Gelb.# "Overture" – 0:48...
  
  (2000)
• The Rock Opera Years (2000)
• Unsungglum (2001)
• Cover Magazine
  Cover Magazine
  Cover Magazine is an album released by the American band Giant Sand on Thrill Jockey Records in 2001. The title references that 11 of the songs are cover versions.-Track listing:#"El Paso / Out on the Weekend"...
  
  (2002)
• Infiltration of Dreams (2003)
• Too Many Spare Parts in the Yard Too Close at Hand (2003)
• Chinese Democrazy (2003)
• Is All Over the Map (2004)
• Provisions (2008)
• Provisional Supplement (2008)
• Blurry Blue Mountain (2010)

Filmography

• High and Dry: Where the Desert Meets Rock and Roll (2006) – a documentary about Tucson
  Tucson, Arizona
  Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
  
   musicians which includes music and interviews with Giant Sand members
• Drunken Bees (1996) – a documentary about Giant Sand by Marianne Dissard
  Marianne Dissard
  Marianne Dissard is a singer, lyricist and filmmaker living in Tucson, Arizona, USA. "A central figure in Tucson's desert music community" with her unique hybrid of French Chanson and Americana, she is noted as a ....
  
  .

External links

• Giant Sand official website
• Ow Om Records record label run by Howe Gelb
• [ Giant Sand] at Allmusic
• Q&A with the Village Voice (9/16/2008)