Fruit Bats is an American indie rock band formed in 1997 in Chicago, Illinois, as the project of singer/songwriter Eric D. Johnson. Johnson is the band's sole permanent member, with various musicians joining the band in live and studio settings. History Early years and Echolocation In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Eric D. Johnson was teaching guitar and banjo at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, and fronting an indie rock band called I Rowboat. In early 2000 he joined the experimental folk group Califone as a multi-instrumentalist. He had also been making homemade cassettes since 1997 under the name Fruit Bats. He describes coming up with the band name as a joke of sorts, describing it as "this dumb fake punk rock name that I put on a four-track tape." The members of Califone ran a small record label called Perishable, and after hearing some of the Fruit Bats recordings, agreed to release a proper full-length album. The subsequent album, Echolocation, was produced by Brian Deck and released in the fall of 2001. Fruit Bats made their live debut at Chicago's Empty Bottle in March 2001. They went on to tour frequently in 2001–2002, often as a support act for such bands as The Sadies, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Modest Mouse and The Shins. Sub Pop years In 2002, Fruit Bats signed with Sub Pop Records. It was through friendships Johnson had developed with members of Modest Mouse and The Shins that he was able to get an introduction with the label. Fruit Bats' Sub Pop debut, Mouthfuls, was released in April 2003. The band continued to tour regularly, traveling with label-mates Iron and Wine and Holopaw, as well as playing some headlining dates. That album cycle also saw the band make their major festival debut at Washington state's Sasquatch! Music Festival in 2004. Mouthfuls’ closing track "When U Love Somebody," of which Johnson has said "I wrote it in the time it takes to sing it" has become a signature song for the band. It was featured in the film Youth in Revolt, and has been covered by bands such as The Decemberists, Guster and Said the Whale. In 2005 Fruit Bats released their second album for Sub Pop, Spelled in Bones. That same year they made their network television debut on Last Call with Carson Daly. They also embarked on a co-headline tour with label-mates Rogue