Mike Dillon | |
|---|---|
 Mike "Tree Frog" Dillon | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Texas / Kansas City / New Orleans |
| Instrument(s) | Percussion, vibraphone, drums |
| Labels | Hyena, Indie, Ropeadope |
Mike Dillon (a.k.a. Mike D) is an American percussionist, vibraphonist, bandleader, and vocalist born in San Antonio, Texas. He is a member of Critters Buggin, Les Claypool's Fancy Band and Garage A Trois. He has performed with many musicians including Ani DiFranco, Galactic, Brave Combo, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Marco Benevento, Clutch (band), Claude Coleman Jr., and New Orleans musicians Kevin O'Day, Johnny Vidacovich and James Singleton.
Dillon's love of playing percussion was born out of his love for the band Rush as a teenager.[1] He originally performed in the 80's with local Dallas and Denton favorites Ten Hands. In the 1990s he led Dallas-based Billy Goat, In the late 1990s, Billy Goat disbanded and he performed in the Kansas City-based Malachy Papers and the Austin-based Hairy Apes BMX (HABMX).
In 2006, Dillon started a project "Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle" which included members of Billy Goat, drummer Go-Go Ray, and bassist, J.J. Jungle. The live Go-Go Jungle also performs songs from Dillon's prior projects. They released their second CD entitled Rock Star Bench Press in 2009.
Dillon contributed the majority of compositions to Garage A Trois' Power Patriot CD released in 2009.
Dillon and saxophonist Skerik perform as a trio called "The Dead Kenny G's" with alternate third members. National tours have included keyboardist Brian Haas and bassist Brad Houser. With Houser they have also toured as "Critters Buggin Trio". They released a CD entitled Bewildered Herd in 2009.[2] As a trio with bassist James Singleton, Dillon and Skerik have toured as "Illuminasti" and as a trio with Les Claypool they have been billed as "The Fancy Trio".
Dillon is married to artist Peregrine Honig, whom he resides with in Kansas City and New Orleans, but a busy touring schedule keeps him on the road much of the time.[3]
