For the majority of the band's career, Thinking Fellers consisted of multi-instrumentalists Brian Hageman, Mark Davies, Anne Eickelberg, Hugh Swarts, and Jay Paget.

The band achieved their greatest critical and commercial success in the mid-1990s, when they signed with the indie rock label Matador Records.

Thinking Fellers has been largely dormant since 1996, having toured sporadically and released only one full album, Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles Present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche, since.

Elf Power's 1999 album A Dream In Sound featured a cover of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282's song "Noble Experiment."

The character Brian, a snobbish fan of "west coast underground bands," listens to the albums of Thinking Fellers while writing the music software that will make him a young millionaire.