JD Pinkus’s 2018 album Keep on the Grass is now available on all streaming platforms. This project was previously only available as a cassette tape. The album is strewn together with loosened vocal melodies and banjo picking. This is his only project to solely focus on the banjo, so the 12-track album illuminates his versatility with the instrument. He developed his solo discography further in 2018, following up Keep on the Grass quickly with Feedback Through A Magnifying Glass Volume I.
Pinkus is best known as the bass player for the American punk band Butthole Surfers from 1985 to 1994 and since their reunion in 2009. Back in 1990, Pinkus, alongside Butthole Surfers lead vocalist Gibby Haynes, released a psychedelic side project, Digital Dump, under the guise The Jackofficers.
Pinkus is also a frequent collaborator, playing guitar and banjo with Pure Luck on their 2017 self-titled debut. He currently appears with Honky and has in the past played weekly on Monday nights at the Jackalope, in Austin, Texas, with an assortment of other musicians called the Guit Down Syndrome.
He was able to join The Melvins on their 30th anniversary tour in 2013 in place of Jared Warren who found himself on paternity leave. He was then extended the invitation to join the Melvins full time, touring with them in 2014 in support of the album Hold It In, which also featured Butthole Surfers founder Paul Leary, and again in 2015. He also plays on the song “Captain Come Down” which was first released in 2015 on Chaos as Usual, a split release with Le Butcherettes, and later included on the 2016 album Basses Loaded. The entire track list for Keep on the Grass is below.
- I Don’t Care
- Broken Days
- 20 lb. Jockey
- Happy Cow
- Bride of Crankenstine
- I Like The Way You Have Fun
- Pissin’ Dirty
- Churn
- Good Trouble
- Broke, Soaked & Dirty
- Your Face Or Mine
- Foot Stop