L.S. Underground – The Grape Prophet

Vinyl Pre-order: Ships July 2026

Widely regarded as the magnum opus of Michael Knott's L.S. Underground, The Grape Prophet is one of the most distinctive rock operas to emerge from the early '90s alternative underground. Released in 1992 on Knott's own Blonde Vinyl Records, the album follows Ellis, an orange picker sent by his boss Colonel Peckesen to rescue his fellow workers from the pull of a charismatic cult leader known as the Grape Prophet, a thinly veiled allegory for events unfolding in the evangelical movement at the time. Dark, heavy, and almost uncomfortably earnest, it arrived just ahead of the grunge explosion and sounded like nothing else in Knott's already eclectic catalog.

Lost in Ohio is proud to offer a very limited second pressing of the album, newly cut with clarity by Lex van Coeverden at The Vinyl Room. For this pressing, we were able to obtain negative scans from the 1992 cover photo shoot: stunning, unsettling images that match the album's dark and brooding character in a way nothing else could. Thanks to the archival work of the Us Kids | An Alternative Music Rebellion team, these photos will get the large format treatment they deserve. The record is pressed on Red Stained splatter vinyl, drawn directly from the visual palette.

The LP features the ten original album tracks, and includes a digital download of the full 2021 Deluxe Edition including its bonus acoustic recordings. Those recordings feature string arrangements by Luke Moller and performances from Steve Hindalong (The Choir), Jesse Sprinkle (Poor Old Lu), and Rick McDonough (Struck Last May), and were mixed by Derri Daugherty (The Choir), who also mixed the original album.