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Band Bio:
Current Band Members:
Jeff Grundhoefer
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Jeff Grundhoefer, Likes long walks in the park and puppies. Lead guitarist, Plays some bass on CD and live, Backup vocals, and lead vocals on some songs live. Instrument of choice: Red Gibson Les Paul Custom through POD processor. Known to the band as grandpa, as he is the senior member of Flat Stanley. He used to get up on tables and jam a solo in your face but because of doctors orders he will no longer be able to exert himself in such a way. Most famous quote: "Rock'em dead!"
Christopher H.
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Christopher H, Bass - Chris was the bass player with Dark Forecast but has been with us since 2003. Chris is also a POD man. Known for his seductive belly button that drives the girls wild. Go ahead, look at it, see what I mean, its like a hypnotists watch or something!
Ron Miller
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Ron Miller, Likes donating time at local orphanages and composing symphonies . Lead Vocalist and rhythm guitar. (Bass on CD) Instrument of choice: Gibson Les Paul through Pod XL. Known as the "good-looking" one and "most talented" one and "the only one with enough computer knowledge to put together a web page" one. Signature outfit would be Biker boots with Millers Garage work shirt. Most un-famous quote: "Not all drugs are good, ...some are great!!!"
John Skarupa
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John Skarupa, Back in the band as of Jan 2008. John was #11 than moved away to Chicago in 2006. Well, we are glad he is back and hopefully for good! John has been in Rukkus and Sukkur Punch and now back home with Flat Stanley.
Flat Stanley, we came to find out years after we adopted the name, is a children's book character. (See Below For Real Flat Stanley) To my understanding, the character in the book has a chalk board fall on him and smash him flat. To take advantage of his new situation, he folds himself up and mails himself to different places. Though still not main stream, teachers have taken to this character to teach children about the mail system. If you don't believe me just type in Flat Stanley in your search engine and find a couple a thousand entries. How we stumbled upon this name was at one time we were called Rock Bottom and we come to find out of two other bands by that name. We were kicking around new names, when one of our friends suggested the name Flat Stanley. It turns out his nephew was over his house and was playing with a cut out piece of paper with a stick drawing of a person on it. When he asked what he was playing with he told him it was Flat Stanley. Not knowing the name, he assumed his nephew made it up. We thought it was very original to and thought there was no way anyone would ever think of it. It was two years later at one of our shows that someone asked if we got the name from that children's book. The next day I got on the internet and low and behold there was tons of entries for it and even had pictures of President Clinton holding up Flat Stanley and even the crew of the space shuttle holding up the little cut out up. If you ever been to one of our shows, you will notice we have a wooden sign with over 700 Christmas lights arranged out to spell Flat Stanley that I made. Well I be damned if we were going to change our name after that. I figure if we keep at this, we will one day have a whole new generation of partiers who will associate with the name.
In the summer of 88' founding members Ron Miller and Jeff Grundhoefer, with then drummer Garry Miller, formed a garage band known as Kelly LA. (click to see picture), which was trying to tie into the La Music scene and inspired by such bands as ; LA Guns, Poison, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses. We truly sucked and soon broke up not be heard from for many moons.
During college daze at U.K. we jammed a few times with a friend of ours by the name of Jerry Moore. He played on a pieced together drum set that Jeff made from Garry's discards.
T'was the summer of 92' that Jeff Grundhoefer was busy gathering musicians together for a return to the spotlight of Rock-n-roll. He found a drummer named Martin Neal and Guitarist named Clyde Thorpe, and also found a girl singer named Liz McFarland. We practiced 3 times a week for some time and eventually acquired enough songs to play out. But the other guys didn't want to play out for one reason or another. Jeff, Liz, and I approached them about this and basically gave an ultimatum about our interest in playing out. The next day we came by for practice and all their stuff was gone. Oh well, good riddance.
Back to the drawing board we finally came across a drummer named Jeremy Mathews, and his friend Eric who played guitar. Even though Eric soon left, we stayed with Jeremy for some time.
Shortly thereafter we asked Rick Brown, a guitarist that we knew from a mutual friend, to jam with us. We had finally found a working chemistry and named ourselves Rock Bottom. With Liz gone, I (Ron) took over lead vocals and all we lacked was a bass player. One of our friends, Ted Hamilton, who had no background with any type of musical instrument, decided to play bass for us. He was slowly but surely learning but had to be gone for long period of time with his job. While he was gone I began to play bass and eventually took over that position.
We had moved our practice room to an attic of a deserted business where we had no heating nor cooling. Try to imagine if you will, four guys huddled around a kerosene heater in between songs to thaw out from the below zero temperatures. Summer was even worse because you can only take off so many clothes to cool down.
We played together about four years at nearly any place that would have us. Eventually though, we parted ways with Jeremy who to this day is a very close friend.
For awhile we jammed with a friend named Rolo, but just as we got enough songs to play out again, he decides to leave town and leave us hangin'.
I guess it was in 96', and after a long search for a replacement, we got together with Chris Goodman. At that time is when we called ourselves Flat Stanley. He played with us until early 2000 and was the drummer on our CD. For nearly all of 99' we worked diligently to finish our CD. It was during that time we met Tony Thomas who was mixing our CD at The Studio. He started running sound for us when we played out and did an awesome job. We were like one big dysfunctional family!
They say when you play in a band its like being married to all the members. You have to get all these separate lives to somehow come together to practice and play out. Our drummer was having a hard time balancing both his personal life and that of the band and began exhibiting erratic behavior that ended with him walking out in the middle of a show not to return. After too many up and downs with him we decided to part ways.
Another friend of ours, Bobby Payne, stepped in as a replacement and we had hopes he would stay. But he was about to get married and other priorities that lead him to decide not to stay. We also were mourning the loss of our sound man who had to leave town because of a new job.
Once again we were back at square one.
2000'
Then joy, Joe Meleski, who had played with The Blitz for many years, got word we were looking for a drummer. We gave him our set list and with only three practices we were back playing full shows.
Joe proved that all good things must end, and left in Dec. 2000. And I had just given him the nickname "Razor". Well luckily he had been in touch with Cayce Frederick and given him our music to learn before he left. Cayce jumped right in and we hardly missed a beat.
Then Rick decided he was going to retire after only 8 short years with the band. We decided it would be better for the band if I took over rhythm guitar and we found a real bass player. We called Cory Clark, who used to play bass for Stone Silo, and he was able to pick up enough songs to play only 3 weeks after coming aboard.
We had been together for nearly two years and have began writing new original music for an upcoming CD we wanted to get out before 2003.
The time is 11-02-02 and the decision to part ways with our bass player Cory Clark is mutually decided on. The split is amicable and we wish Cory the best of luck for the future. I'm sure you'll see him jamming again.
We started practicing with a new bass player but he had too many irons in the fire and could not stay. Then one night at the Boiler Room I ran across Eric Miller, a bass player I had respected for years, and asked him to give me a call if he would be interested in jamming with us. A few days later he called and we began practicing with him. After only a couple of practices he picked up the songs quickly and would be ready to play the New Years Eve 2002-2003 show at Boiler Room.
Well the shit hit the fan and Flat Stanley will never be the same. Our drummer got into a little trouble with the law the night before our New Years Eve show and we had to get Sukker Punch to share the show with us and get their drummer to fill in on one days notice.
We parted ways with Casey and auditioned drummers for the 6 months looking for that perfect fit. We were getting frustrated and antsy and ready to play out again.
Finally got call from drummer Sam Sutton on July 6th 2003. He a great drummer and fits in well with band.
We threw out nearly all of the old songs from or set list and planned to come back with entirely new show.
12-20-03 Well once again we have a line up change for Flat Stanley. Eric has decided to leave and dedicate more time to his other band "Gridlock" as lead guitar. We wish him the best of luck.
Luckily Sam had been in contact with his bass player from Dark Forecast, Christopher H., and we were able to get him copies of our song list and in less than 8 practices we were able to get back out on the scene.
2-15-05
Sam has decided to leave the band to pursue other interests.
So for you that have been keeping count, that would make 10 drummers that have come and gone, talk about your Spinal Tap luck.
Well, finally timing has worked out and we were lucky enough to pick up John Skarupa to play drums for us. (hopefully #11 is a charm!) He was Rukkus and Sukker Punch's drummer and had taken a small sabbatical from Rock-n-Roll scene for about 4-5 months. John, by the way, was the one who filled in for us on that fateful New Years Gig in 2003. He is familiar with a lot of the music we do and will be ready in April 2005 to go full force!
July 2006,
Our friend, soundman, and one of our original drummers, Jeremy Matthews, has decided he can't stand anymore of our shit and decided to get the hell out of town, well actually, love was the culprit that stole him away from us. He has moved to North Carolina and will be missed. A friend of the band, Troy Bishop has come in and been doing a great job with sound.
September 2006, Well we say goodbye to our good friend and #11, John Skarupa. He has moved to Chicago to be close to his family and move into a retirement community. We will never forget oh what's his name... just joking! You know we love ya!
It just so happened that John knew of a fresh young talent that was looking for a gig, Adam Kirby. Before you knew it we found out we had a new drummer. Well it turns out he is very good drummer and will hopefully breath some new life into the old bones of Flat Stanley (that includes you Chris, now that your 30)
Well another day, another member. Troy Bishop was helping us out on sound and lights but decided to quite to dedicate more time to his son, etc.
We now have several guys helping with sound and lights. Thanks to Darren, Josh and Doug.
January 2008. The band decided to part ways with Adam Kirby. Adam a great drummer and you will be seeing him around for a long time!
Flat Stanley welcomes back #11 drummer John Skarupa. It's like putting on your favorite old sneaker, the perfect fit. Also old and stinky, just joking. Hopefully he'll stick around for awhile.
You can catch us in Owensboro, Evansville, Jasper, Louisville and anywhere in between. Hope to see you at our next show!
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