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February 18, 2008
the public women utility has been deregulated
Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains - American Names
DFA 1979: much-loved, very much broken-up. A lot of people made noise about MSTRKRFT (Keeler's first-strike, pre-Justice blog house act?) when they came out with their record, but I think perhaps that it's Sebastien Grainger that everyone should be paying their hectic attention to- not only did he release a blistering little split 7" last year under his given name (the song, "When You Go Out", was one of the things I listened to incessantly while writing, and it's beat-beam architecture, coupled with Sebastien's vigorously pretty falsetto, make it an almost perfect song to listen to when you want to get into a nice nostalgic/pensive funk), but he's now recording and releasing songs with his new backing band (the Mountains) and under his 'party alias', The Rhythm Method. Grainger can seemingly do pretty much whatever he wants to, and well (check out the range of some of the tracks he's got up on his website, c.f. specifically 'I'm All Rage' and 'Young Mothers').
'American Names', which is one of the first tracks I heard from his new project with the Mountains, has a special gravity to it (is it the organ-y/feedback prelude, the slick tattoo of the drums, or the cavilling guitars?), leavened both by Sebastien's full-hearted vocals (gorgeously doubled at points) and a sweetly semi-paternalistic chorus ("If you're always on/your way out the door/you'll never have/a place to call home"). Some of the lyrics in this song are difficult to discern, but the bits and pieces that are clear align with my own recent thoughts about absence, escape, wanderlust, etc.- not so much a grass-is-always-greener situation, but more of a general need for a change of scenery (if that makes sense). Although I don't own a car anymore, I know that this is exactly the kind of song that begs for a late night, windows-down, highway-driven listen; I suspect that that's the right space for it (much in the same way that certain paintings demand to be hung precisely on the wall in a gallery for maximum effect, some songs seem to deserve the same level of curation). To be more clear-cut about it: the song is just really goddamn good.
Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains will release their first single ('American Names/'Ways to Come Home') soon, on Rectangle Records (buy it when it comes out!), with a full-length (on an undetermined label) some time in the near-ish future. Also, the Rhythm Method will have a 7" release of 'Renegade Silence/'When You Go Out' on Alakazm records soon- not many details about that one, although the cover art looks ridiculously cool (scroll to the bottom).
Posted by Kevin at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)