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Photo By Chugrad MacAndrews
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Band takes new "cleaner" approach too literally: (L-R)
Grandaddy's Tim Dryden, Kevin Garcia, Jason Lytle,
Aaron Burtch and Jim Fairchild.
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"I really like that place -- I just read somewhere that apparently that's where the Tommy Gun was first designed," says Grandaddy drummer Aaron Burtch of the band's latest stop at Newport's Southgate House on Wednesday. "You can tell there's plenty of history in that place."
The same can be said of Burtch's band of brothers in Grandaddy -- all five members grew up together in the same sleepy suburban town of Modesto, Calif.
Founded by singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jason Lytle, Grandaddy was born after a severe knee injury ended his career as a professional skateboarder back in 1992. To combat the pain (both physical and emotional), he began recording songs with a couple of Modesto skate park buddies, Burtch and bassist Kevin Garcia.
By Grandaddy's 1997 debut full-length -- the dusty, lo-fi powered Under the Western Freeway -- the trio added two more Modesto natives, guitarist Jim Fairchild (formerly of Licking Chewbacca's Dick) and keyboardist Tim Dryden. The resulting Freeway was a Casio-laced collection of ear-pleasing guitar hooks, hissing tape loops and Lytle's distinctive, childlike use of lyric and voice. It was a stellar start ... that no one heard.
That would change with Grandaddy's next release, 2000's epic and majestic The Sophtware Slump. A lushly textured, sometimes desolate, always intriguing song cycle on technology's effect on modern culture, the record firmly planted the West Coast five-piece on the musical map. Semi-accurate Radiohead comparisons followed, as did acclaim from every direction. The band -- especially its soft-spoken frontman -- inevitably retreated.
But that was then.
Released this past May (coincidentally, the same day as Radiohead's Hail to the Thief), Sumday refines the esoteric tendencies of the band's previous work by employing a slightly more streamlined approach. It's still Grandaddy, but a less sinister, more approachable one.
"It's always an organic process, but there was a kind of deliberate effort to make it what it was," says Burtch of Sumday. "Jason was going for something a little different, while still retaining our general feel."
He was also getting more personal. Lytle's Sumday lyrics largely stuff Sophtware Slump's drunken robots and broken household appliances into the closet while bringing songs like the seemingly first-person "O.K. With My Decay" to the forefront.
Sonically, the band has never sounded so sober. Take the buoyant opening track, "Now It's On." Lytle's high whine is no longer an afterthought buried in mix; it shines through with affecting clarity. Elsewhere, Burtch's steady single beat is crisper than ever; Fairchild and Lytle's guitars emit a glossy, radio-ready sheen; Dryden's shimmering keyboards sound as if they just got back from ELO boot camp. And Garcia? He's the same as he ever was: the sturdy backbone.
The source of the sonic buff job, you might ask? For the first time ever, the band welcomed an outsider into the family: At the request of their label, V2 Records, veteran mix man Michael Brauer was brought in to work with Lytle.
"It was kinda weird. I remember (Lytle) agreed to it but then he was like, 'You know what, the reason Grandaddy records sound like they do is because I mix them.' So he was kinda bummed that he had agreed to work with this guy," says Burtch. "But it ended up working really well; they had a really good working rapport. And, most importantly, the record sounds a lot better."
Despite Brauer's presence, Burtch emphasizes the band still has a strong hold on their well-earned creative control -- i.e., an outside producer is not a possibility.
"That's a whole different thing having someone in the studio the whole time directing things," he says. "There's just no way. Too much family stuff goes on."
That "family stuff" extends to the band's road habits.
"We used to try to travel as light as possible but we've kinda given that up," Burtch says. "Now we bring as much from home as we can. We bring a pretty complete art kit, so we can mess around on the road when the bus isn't bumpin' around. And we bring a grill and try to have little barbeque parties every now and then after the shows. And bikes are a big thing. With the amount of money we make, we can't really afford cabs. So when we get to a town, it's good to have the bikes so we can go off on our own and ride around for a couple hours. The road is not our natural habitat. We try to counteract that with whatever we can -- we hit the street."
It seems Burtch is unstoppable when it comes to the "we" theme.
"We've been doing this for a long time. We're all good friends," he says. "I don't want to get all Mickey Mouse Club, or whatever, but we're really a close unit. We're all still excited about the music. And we're good traveling partners: We respect each other's space, we don't punch each other much anymore (laughing). We all read each other well -- when to lay off, when to lay it on. And we ..."
And we are lucky to have Grandaddy.
GRANDADDY plays the Southgate House on Wednesday with the Starlight Mints.
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