Wormwood Grasshopper Records is the baby of Hobart musician Ben Mason (Drunk Elk / Que / The Breeze). So far, it has proven itself to be a small boutique label releasing underground pop music from Tasmania and beyond. That kind of pop music that gets called 'demented' in PR, with an apparent heavy influence from New Zealand pop. Wormwood Grasshopper looks to be focusing on recordings of both the past and present, with previously unreleased material from defunct Hobart bands like Que, Wendy In The Mountains And The Caves With The Salves and Hammering The Cramps either already released or in the works.
I recently briefly spoke to Ben Mason about his new label, and where he plans to take it:
What have you released so far on Wormwood Grasshopper?
So far it's been predominantly the Drunk Elk LP [Under Neon Lights] and Mad Nanna 7", although I did put a Wormwood Grasshopper logo on a few CDRs for Julian Teakle's music stall a while back (The Que's Fern Tree Recordings and Drunk Elk's "Pieces Of People...").
What are the future plans for Wormwood Grasshopper?
Just around the corner would be the Hammering The Cramps LP, which has been in the works for some time now and it looks like it's nearly there. I can't wait to release this one. They were an incredible Hobart band that, I think, are totally underrated. There's vibes of Roky Erickson, Xpressway bands and - the best song in the world - Brian Eno's 'Here Come The Warm Jets'. After that would be some tapes from Wendy In The Mountains And The Caves With The Slaves (first one was sent off to be duplicated today!). I wouldn't mind doing another Drunk Elk 7" soon, and hopefully we'll get our act together and record a Breeze EP. There's also a couple of projects I'm toying with that aren't Hobart bands, but I need to figure those out a little more still.
Hammering the Cramps - Jesse's Vampires by Wormwood grasshopper
