David Grubbs - C/D S/D POO

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David Grubbs:
Squirrel Bait squallor
Bitch Magnet pre-post-rock(?)
Bastro post-prog
Gastr del Sol finessed chaos-pop

solo releases of both extreme and "the Bruce Hornsby of post-rock" (© Henry H. Owings)...

ILM-ers, take a stand:

Grubbs = shameless diletante panderer or vital forward-thinking out-pop maven? (or somewhere in between as per usual)

gygax! (i forgot my blog password), Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I have to admit... I've listened to about half of The Spectrum Between over 40 times...

his lyrics have been ridiculed wide and far... I don't mind them at all...

his guitar rhythm and style segues with my psyche, the later era non-improv textures are MPB filtered through Louisville hardcore.

gygax! (i forgot my blog password), Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

DESTROY! DESTROY! Never excited me much. His best work was probably in Squirrel Bait when he was teen without all the book learnin' ruinin' him. Bastro was OK. From Gastr Del Sol on, though, I have to jump off the bus and catch the O'Rourke Express to the other side of town. Grubbs application of avant garde music theory just seems so wooden and lifeless to me. His lyrics always strike me as strained and him trying to hard to be "serious." His "pop goes the weasel" melodies don't stick to my ribs either. Only a hobbit would come out of his hole for Grubbs (wink).

jack cole, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

MPB? You need to explain that one a bit more for me. My percentile dice are on the fritz.

jack cole, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

His lyrics are often pretty funny; i think its his flat delivery that makes them sound likes hes trying to be serious. Destroy all the Squirel Bait releases which ruined the flawlessness of the Dexter's Cigar label. While you're at it detroy his terrible first solo album (Banana Cabbages etc). Search everything he did with Jim O'Rourke and/or Tony Conrad.

hamish, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Search two songs in particular by Bastro: the brute-force "Shoot Me A Deer" and the karate-chop "Recidivist."

Douglas, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

MPB = Musica Popular Brasileira = Brazillian Popular Music

Grubbs sounds like an indie kid trying to play the bossa. It's an interesting technique, I suppose.

Keiko, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

ol grubby's great. squirrel bait's time is long past and I never got into dem. bastro's best moments were the ones inching towards gastr (rather than the ones inching towards big black), "wurlitzer" on diablo guapo and "sketch for sleepy" (a proto-ursus) on teenbeat fifti. my gastr faves: 'the serpentine similar' (prolly their most balanced featuring the ultimate guitar duel "ursus arctos wonderfilis" as well as some nice acoustic ditties, a piano and organ duet, and thinkin'-riffin' w/ rippin' drums), '20 songs less' 7" (enter o'rourke and the sounds of children playing in the breeze of an acoustic gtr, muy ethereal), 'mirror repair' (the guitar maelstrom and groovy surf on "dictionary of handwriting" and overlapping keys and gene coleman's ass-rumbling bass clarinet on "eight corners"), 'camoufleur' (burbling shuffling pop? "seasons reverse" eastern-european folk magic band? "black horse"). I can usually dig on his often funny lyrics/directions and wooden (but well-sanded and staind) singing (tho he's no sinatra). don't have the solo albums; I'm not much of a high roller. now I know what I'm listening to on my lunch break.

danielgamesh, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

MPB = Keiko, Cole KNOWS what it means, he's trying to find the context.

Cole, search the diadic guitar, swirling arrangements, and postivitely inward/outward tropicalismic lyrical nature of Gastr's "Seasons Reverse" and Grubbs' "Whirlwheek" and "Show Me Who To Love".

gygax! (i forgot my blog password), Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

i will give the gastr track a spin as that is all the grubbiness I have besides Bastro and Squirrel Bait.

jack cole, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

perhaps with my fresh velosoed ears I will hear what you speak of, gygax.

jack cole, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

well shit, the first 2 tracks on the new grubbs are an even better indication of the SoAm feel I'm feeling.

gygax! (i forgot my blog password), Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

telling interview with PSF... scroll down near the bottom.

gygax! (i forgot my blog password), Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

two years pass...
Enjoying the new album, esp. the first half. Pretty and poppy.

frankE (frankE), Friday, 30 July 2004 05:01 (nineteen years ago) link

six years pass...

New song on Drag City site sounds nice, at this hour (Belfi/Grubbs/Pilia vinyl-only thing).

http://www.dragcity.com

Can you keep up? (Cheetah), Wednesday, 6 October 2010 07:42 (thirteen years ago) link

nine years pass...

Wow--thanks for posting about and putting on/changing your regular course of label/festival admin to work on this project; looking fwd to digging into a bunch of these DLs.

Cysteine Chapo (Craig D.), Sunday, 5 April 2020 07:57 (four years ago) link

my pleasure! support the musicians if you can, there are direct PayPal links for all pieces on both the FB page (the main place I am doing this, so I can do intros for each piece) and the blogspot page (https://amplify2020.blogspot.com).

jon abbey, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 01:42 (four years ago) link

three years pass...

This seems like a short thread. He's been someone i've known about for a long time but i've only known specific tracks, rather than albums.

Posts about him and Gastr del Sol seem to provoke mixed reaction elsewhere. Someone says 'such quintessential 90s Wire music' (or similar) on another thread, and though i fully recognise this sense - think i first heard him on a Wire Tapper CD! - there's been enough time past that that's ok with me right now.

ionjusit (P. Flick), Thursday, 7 September 2023 20:29 (seven months ago) link

Gastr were, along with Sonic Youth and Stereolab, a huge gateway band for me in terms of openly talking about (and often also reissuing!) their influences.

I'd recommend a first full listen to either "Upgrade and Afterlife" or "Camoufleur", depending on if you're up for their harsher or slightly poppier output...

If I luge, if I luge, if I luge you on the track (Craig D.), Thursday, 7 September 2023 21:59 (seven months ago) link

A Guess at the Riddleholds up very well, the centerpiece being the timely epic "Hurricane Season" (co-produced by erstwhile ILXor Drew Daniel of Matmos.)

henry s, Thursday, 7 September 2023 22:27 (seven months ago) link

strong agree re: guess at the riddle. terrific record

J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 7 September 2023 22:52 (seven months ago) link

I can't remember if I've heard that one, but I quite liked his string of song-based albums before that (The Thicket, The Spectrum Between, and Rickets & Scurvy).

jaymc, Friday, 8 September 2023 00:33 (seven months ago) link

New album with Alan Courtis of Reynols is a gem https://huskypantsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/braintrust-of-fiends-and-werewolves

Composition 40b (Stew), Friday, 8 September 2023 08:32 (seven months ago) link

Hardly needed to check to know it was Graham Lambkin artwork

It was seeing that Steve Roden was involved with Guess at the Riddle which prompted my revive

ionjusit (P. Flick), Friday, 8 September 2023 09:12 (seven months ago) link

search: His double ep with Avey Tare (yes, really). Has a really nice piano ditty on it. Speaking of which, also search his debut solo "banana cabbage" for more piano goodness.

Grubbs is great, definitely see him perform if you ever get the chance, he's very charming.

H.P, Friday, 8 September 2023 12:55 (seven months ago) link

https://fatcatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/split-series-16

H.P, Friday, 8 September 2023 12:55 (seven months ago) link

Codeine search: Barely Real "W." (*Grubbs solo piano), The White Birch "Wyrd" (2nd guitar) & "Tom" (2nd guitar)

*Codeine had asked Grubbs to transcribe "Wyrd" (a Louisville inspired post-rock guitar song) into a piano piece.

citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 8 September 2023 15:14 (seven months ago) link


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