Book Stroke 9 for colleges, corporate events, fairs, festivals, casinos & private shows. Contact Degy Entertainment for booking info.
Stroke 9 is an alternative rock band out of San Francisco working the power pop and post-grunge corner of the genre, best known for the 1999 single "Little Black Backpack," which helped push their major-label debut, Nasty Little Thoughts, to Gold certification and landed the band a spot in the film EdTV. They kept the momentum going with Rip It Off, whose single "Kick Some Ass" turned up in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, then settled into an independent run with The Last of the International Playboys, 2020's Calafrio, and 2023's singles compilation Calafuego.
They go back further than the hits suggest. Luke Esterkyn and Greg Gueldner started the band in 1989 while still finishing high school in Marin County, more as a class project than a career plan, and it took years, two independent releases, and a rotating lineup before John McDermott and Eric Stock locked the band into the shape that would sign with Universal a decade later. That long, unhurried runway is part of why the band is still writing and releasing new music more than three decades on.
Stroke 9 has toured with Oasis, No Doubt, Smash Mouth, and Vertical Horizon, placed songs in Scrubs, Malcolm in the Middle, and The West Wing, and recorded for Rock Ridge Music. They still turn up close to home at rooms like the HopMonk Tavern in Novato, alongside national and international tours, which makes them a grounded live booking for fairs, festivals, college events, casinos, and private shows.
