Fruit Bats is yet another instance of an actual band evolving from the starting point of the musical alias of a solo singer/songwriter. In this case, the musician is Eric D. Johnson, who started as Fruit Bats in 1997. By 2000, Johnson was the guitarist in various bands, including Califone and The Shins. He was also a banjo instructor at the famed Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. By 2001, Fruit Bats was a band, with their debut full-length record released that year. In recent years, Johnson had continued making music, but had put the Fruit Bats name to rest. Now he's taken it up again, with Absolute Loser. The sixth Fruit Bats studio album is a well crafted, melodic set of songs with folk-rock roots.
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