Grey Daturas

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Grey Daturas were an improvised noise rock band formed in August of 2001. Citing influences as varied as The Stooges, Earth, John Coltrane, John Cage, Darkthrone, Sonic Youth, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Can, their first show was at the North Melbourne Town Hall Hotel, and their last at Melbourne's Tote Hotel on January 15th, 2010. Their split was amicable. Originally performing soundtracks to 16 mm film projections by the way of electronics, guitars and a large amount of pedals, the band would adopt the use of drums and bass over the next two years and slowly evolve far beyond their original noise based landscapes. By 2003, they'd stopped using film projections, and by the release of debut LP Dead in the Woods in 2004 Grey Daturas were playing a unique brand of noisy free rock. Copper / Silver, their split EP with Yellow Swans, was listed as one of the best 'avant rock' releases of 2005 by The Wire magazine, and by the band's end in 2010 they had played and collaborated with artists as far-reaching as Neurosis, Sunn 0))), Monarch and Wolf Eyes. After the band's split, Bonnie Mercer and Rob Mayson decided to continue playing together in Daturas side-project Breathing Shrine. Mayson also plays in Melbourne bands Whitehorse, Collapsed Toilet Vietnam and has a solo project entitled It's Is. Bonnie Mercer has a solo project under her own name. Since 2005, Robert MacManus has been running his own record label and tour booking agency, Heathen Skulls (www.heathenskulls.com). He now drums in French doom metal band Monarch, plays solo under as Black Widow, and collaborates with My Disco guitarist Ben Andrews as Blarke Bayer / Black Widow. Members: Bonnie Mercer Robert Mayson Robert MacManus www.greydaturas.com http://www.myspace.com/greydaturas Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.