Mount Rushmore (band)

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Mount Rushmore was an American rock band in the late 1960s from San Francisco, California, United States,^[1] that played a heavy blues rock style with psychedelic elements. AllMusic described the outfit as "also-rans of the San Francisco psychedelic era".^[2] They were named after the colossal statue in South Dakota, Mount Rushmore.

The band formed in early 1967 at 1915 Oak Street, a large Victorian rooming house in the Haight-Ashbury district. The original members were Ed Levin (ex-Vipers), Warren Phillips (ex Blue House Basement), Thomas Dotzler, Mike Bolan and Danny Wei. Wei was soon replaced by Terry Kimble on bass guitar. In June and July 1967, they were featured on posters for shows at the Avalon Ballroom with many other bands including The Doors, Procol Harum, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Grateful Dead, Steve Miller, Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. In June 1967, Mount Rushmore played two sets at The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival; it was just one week before the Monterey Pop Festival, which is considered the world's first "Rock Festival". In March 1968, Dotzler left to join local band Phoenix, and was soon followed by Phillips and Levin. Bolan and Kimble added Glenn Smith and Travis Fullerton to the line up and this line-up made two albums.^[1]