Grandaddy
Encyclopedia
Grandaddy was an American indie rock
band, formed in 1992 in Modesto, California
by singer, guitarist, and keyboardist Jason Lytle
, bassist Kevin Garcia, and drummer Aaron Burtch. Guitarist Jim Fairchild
and keyboardist Tim Dryden later joined the band in 1995. After several self-released records and cassettes the band signed to Will Records in the US and later the V2
subsidiary Big Cat Records
in the UK, going on to sign an exclusive deal with V2. The band released several albums before splitting in 2006, with band members going on to solo careers and other projects. The bulk of the band's recorded output was the work of Lytle, who worked primarily in home studios.
, bassist Kevin Garcia, and drummer Aaron Burtch, initially influenced by US punk bands such as Suicidal Tendencies
and Bad Brains
. Lytle was a former professional skateboarder
, who had turned to music after a knee injury forced him to stop, working at a sewage treatment works to fund the purchase of equipment, and several of the band's early live performances were at skateboarding competitions. The band members constructed a studio at the Lytle family home, and the band's first release was the self-produced cassette Complex Party Come Along Theories in April 1994. Singles "Could This Be Love" and "Taster" followed later that year. In 1995, guitarist Jim Fairchild
(another ex-pro-skater who had guested with the band before) and keyboardist Tim Dryden joined the band. A second cassette, Don't Sock the Tryer was withdrawn, with the band instead releasing debut mini-album A Pretty Mess by This One Band
in April 1996 on the Seattle-based Will label. In 1997 they released their debut full-length album Under the Western Freeway
, and with the help of Howe Gelb
, signed a UK deal with Big Cat Records
(by then a subsidiary of V2), who reissued the album the following year. The album included the single "A.M. 180
", which was featured during a sequence in the 2002 British film 28 Days Later
, and is also used as the theme tune for the BBC Four
series Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
, and for an advertisement for Colin Murray
's BBC Radio 1
show. "A.M. 180" was also used in television commercials for the Dodge Journey automobile. One of the album's singles, "Summer Here Kids" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by the NME
. "Summer Here Kids" is also used as the theme music for another Charlie Brooker-fronted show, BBC Radio 4's So Wrong It's Right. The album led to an increase in the band's popularity in Europe, and a main stage performance at the Reading Festival in 1998, although it was only a success in the US when later reissued by V2. With the band busy touring in 1999, their next release was the compilation The Broken Down Comforter Collection
.
's V2 Records
in 1999, their first release on the label the Signal to Snow Ratio
EP
in September that year. In May 2000, they released their second album, The Sophtware Slump
, to critical acclaim, with popular British music magazine NME
later placing it number 34 in their Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade list, and The Independent
describing it as "easily the equal of OK Computer
". The album reached number 36 on the UK Albums Chart
, and the band's fanbase increased, including celebrities such as David Bowie
, Kate Moss
, and Liv Tyler
. By early 2001 the album had sold 80,000 copies worldwide. "The Crystal Lake
", although not a hit when released as the first single from the album, gave the band their first UK top 40 single when reissued in 2001.
Around the time that The Sophtware Slump was released, Grandaddy was invited to open for Elliott Smith
on his tour for Figure 8
. On some nights, Smith would join Grandaddy onstage and sing lead vocals on portions of "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot". The band later opened for Coldplay
on their US tour in Summer 2001. Also in 2001, the band's version of The Beatles
' "Revolution
" was used in the film I Am Sam
.
Their third album, Sumday
, recorded in Lytle's home studio, was released in 2003. The band promoted it with a pre-release US tour with Pete Yorn
followed by a three week European tour (including a performance at the Glastonbury Festival
) and a larger US tour. Lytle described the album as "Grandaddy influenced by Grandaddy...the ultimate Grandaddy record".
Starting in late 2005, the Grandaddy song "Nature Anthem
" could be heard in a Honda Civic
Hybrid television commercial, and was later used in a Coca Cola commercial.
In 2004 and 2005 Lytle recorded what would be the last Grandaddy album, Just Like the Fambly Cat, although by the time of its release the band had decided to split up. The title is a reference to Lytle's desire to leave Modesto, a town which he complained "sucks out people's souls". The album was largely the work of Lytle, who created the album over a year and ahalf in his home studio in Modesto, fuelled by alcohol, painkillers and recreational drugs, with only Burtch from the remainder of the band playing on it. It was preceded by the band's final release while together, the Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla
EP.
:
Lytle had called the meeting in a hotel in Modesto, the first time the band had been in a room together for two years. The feeling at the meeting was described by Lytle as the result of a breakdown in communication among the band members. According to Lytle the decision was not a surprise:
Lytle also stated that he was "burnt out on touring" and cited his fears over his drug and alcohol problems as a factor in the band's split, and in 2009 he expressed his preference for being solo, saying that he was "a bit of a loner", and referring to his former bandmates, stated: "The main thing is not having four girlfriends to lug around with me all the time."
The band did not tour after the release of Just Like the Fambly Cat, though Lytle continued to make music, embarking on a couple of small solo tours, and working with M Ward on Hold Time. He has moved from Modesto to Montana
. Lytle has since released a solo album (Yours Truly, the Commuter
) in 2009 and in late 2009 formed the band Admiral Radley
with former Grandaddy drummer Aaron Burch.
In April 2007 Jim Fairchild put out his first solo record on Dangerbird Records
, entitled Ten Readings of a Warning
, under the name All Smiles. He currently lives and works in San Francisco, California
. He released the second All Smiles album entitled Oh For the Getting and Not Letting Go
, on June 30, 2009. Fairchild has also played for the bands Giant Sand
, Great Northern
, Lackthereof
, and Modest Mouse
. Fairchild began playing guitar for Modest Mouse in 2004; He continued playing with Modest Mouse again in 2009. In 2010 he was selected to lead a project at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
.
Burtch has been in a band called The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit. Burtch and Lytle, along with Earlimart
's Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray, have since formed a new band called Admiral Radley
. Their debut album was released in the USA on July 13, 2010 via Espinoza's label The Ship.
and the fuzzy guitar, bass and drums of the rest of the band. The band has variously been described as "bittersweet indie space rock", "neo-psychedelic, blissed-out indie rock", "dreamy, spacey psychedelic pop", and "an uneasy combination of warm, tactile guitars and affectless electronics". Jon Pareles
of The New York Times
described the band's songs as "stately anthems orchestrated with full late-psychedelic pomp: fuzz-toned guitar strumming, rippling keyboards brawny drumbeats".
While the band have sometimes been described as 'alt country', in Lytle's view it is the sentiment of country music that the band embraced rather than the musical style. In their early days, the band's lo-fi
sound was compared to Pavement
. The band has also been compared to Radiohead
(even described as "the next Radiohead" in 2001), The Flaming Lips
, and Elliot Smith. With Sumday, the band were compared to the Electric Light Orchestra
and the Alan Parsons Project
.
Lytle has cited both The Beatles
and E.L.O. as influences, stating in 2003 "I'm completely in tune with E.L.O. and Jeff Lynne - I know that guy like the back of my hand." He stated in 2009: "I think the majority of my musical influences were set in stone when I was five or six years old."
Lytle's vocals have drawn comparisons with Neil Young
.
described the lyrics on The Sophtware Slump as "one's attempt to transcend the glut of technology in today's urban lifestyle, in search of something more real, more natural, more pastoral". Ben Sisario of The New York Times
stated that the band "provided the soundtrack to dot-com-era alienation, singing in a cracked yet still innocent voice of life spent staring into a computer screen". Ross Raihala, reviewing Sumday for SPIN
, identified what he called Lytle's "geeky identification with technology". On The Sophtware Slump, CMJ writer Richard A. Martin commented on Lytle's "sympathy for the lost souls and machines of the high-tech dot-com landscape". Lytle described his empathy with machines in 2003, stating "I find it easier dealing with certain things by living through inanimate objects" and how the song "I'm on Standby" is about Lytle relating to a mobile phone
: "I was spending so much time learning the art of turning off, while still being 'on'".
Lytle said of the tracks on Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla: "For some reason, they are tied together by the idea of being fed up with your environment." He stated in 2001: "I have a growing appreciation for that which is simple and natural. I get that from the outdoors, and seeing the accumulation of clutter and waste and not being too happy about it."
There is also much humor in Lytle's songwriting, including the band's promotional Christmas single released in 2000, "Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland", which was also included on the charity compilation It's a Cool Cool Christmas
, described by Allmusic Tim DiGravina as possibly "the funniest song from 2000".
. He recorded basic drum tracks in a soundproofed room and overdubbed cymbals and tom toms. He recorded his vocals close to the strings of a piano for what he described as a "ghostly effect".
Lytle described how the Grandaddy recordings became more of a solo effort and the right conditions for recording:
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band, formed in 1992 in Modesto, California
Modesto, California
Modesto is a city in, and is the county seat of, Stanislaus County, California. With a population of approximately 201,165 at the 2010 census, Modesto ranks as the 18th largest city in the state of California....
by singer, guitarist, and keyboardist Jason Lytle
Jason Lytle
Jason Lytle is an American musician best known for his work in the indie rock group Grandaddy. He released a solo album in 2009 and is currently in the band Admiral Radley.-Biography:...
, bassist Kevin Garcia, and drummer Aaron Burtch. Guitarist Jim Fairchild
Jim Fairchild
Jim Fairchild is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. He records under the name All Smiles.-Biography:...
and keyboardist Tim Dryden later joined the band in 1995. After several self-released records and cassettes the band signed to Will Records in the US and later the V2
V2 Records
V2 Records is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2007. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI....
subsidiary Big Cat Records
Big Cat Records
Big Cat Records is a UK record label. It launched around 1990 and originally specialized in industrial and noise-rock releases. Operated a US office in NYC for a few years. Purchased by V2 Records in 1996, at which point their roster became much more diverse in style...
in the UK, going on to sign an exclusive deal with V2. The band released several albums before splitting in 2006, with band members going on to solo careers and other projects. The bulk of the band's recorded output was the work of Lytle, who worked primarily in home studios.
Formation and early releases
Grandaddy was formed in 1992 by singer, guitarist, and keyboardist Jason LytleJason Lytle
Jason Lytle is an American musician best known for his work in the indie rock group Grandaddy. He released a solo album in 2009 and is currently in the band Admiral Radley.-Biography:...
, bassist Kevin Garcia, and drummer Aaron Burtch, initially influenced by US punk bands such as Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies is a U.S. crossover thrash band founded in 1981 in Venice, Los Angeles, California by Mike Muir, its leader and only permanent member. The band is sometimes credited as one of "the fathers of crossover thrash"...
and Bad Brains
Bad Brains
Bad Brains is an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1977. They are widely regarded as among the pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members objected to this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of...
. Lytle was a former professional skateboarder
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
, who had turned to music after a knee injury forced him to stop, working at a sewage treatment works to fund the purchase of equipment, and several of the band's early live performances were at skateboarding competitions. The band members constructed a studio at the Lytle family home, and the band's first release was the self-produced cassette Complex Party Come Along Theories in April 1994. Singles "Could This Be Love" and "Taster" followed later that year. In 1995, guitarist Jim Fairchild
Jim Fairchild
Jim Fairchild is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. He records under the name All Smiles.-Biography:...
(another ex-pro-skater who had guested with the band before) and keyboardist Tim Dryden joined the band. A second cassette, Don't Sock the Tryer was withdrawn, with the band instead releasing debut mini-album A Pretty Mess by This One Band
A Pretty Mess by This One Band
A Pretty Mess by This One Band is an EP by the band Grandaddy, released in April 1996 on Will Records. It includes four songs taken from the band's earlier cassette-only release Complex Party Come Along Theories, and others from their unreleased 1995 album Don't Sock the Tryer.The tracks from the...
in April 1996 on the Seattle-based Will label. In 1997 they released their debut full-length album Under the Western Freeway
Under the Western Freeway
Under the Western Freeway is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in October 1997 on Will Records. The album was released in the UK in April 1998 by Big Cat Records, and later reissued in the US by Big Cat's parent company V2 Records.The track titled "A.M. 180" was...
, and with the help of Howe Gelb
Howe Gelb
Howe Gelb is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer based in Tucson, Arizona.-Projects:Gelb's approach to music is collaborative and he has recorded with a number of side projects...
, signed a UK deal with Big Cat Records
Big Cat Records
Big Cat Records is a UK record label. It launched around 1990 and originally specialized in industrial and noise-rock releases. Operated a US office in NYC for a few years. Purchased by V2 Records in 1996, at which point their roster became much more diverse in style...
(by then a subsidiary of V2), who reissued the album the following year. The album included the single "A.M. 180
A.M. 180
"A.M. 180" is a single by American indie rock band Grandaddy from their debut studio album, Under the Western Freeway, released in 1998. It was originally titled "Rocket Like a Hurricane" before release....
", which was featured during a sequence in the 2002 British film 28 Days Later
28 Days Later
28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston...
, and is also used as the theme tune for the BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
series Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is a British television review programme broadcast on BBC Four by Charlie Brooker. The programme contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how television is produced.-Format:...
, and for an advertisement for Colin Murray
Colin Murray
Colin Murray is a Northern Irish sports and music radio and television presenter. He is the current host of the BBC Television show Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, and the BBC Radio 5 Live shows 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk, as well as a show on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular...
's BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show. "A.M. 180" was also used in television commercials for the Dodge Journey automobile. One of the album's singles, "Summer Here Kids" was awarded 'Single of the Week' by the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. "Summer Here Kids" is also used as the theme music for another Charlie Brooker-fronted show, BBC Radio 4's So Wrong It's Right. The album led to an increase in the band's popularity in Europe, and a main stage performance at the Reading Festival in 1998, although it was only a success in the US when later reissued by V2. With the band busy touring in 1999, their next release was the compilation The Broken Down Comforter Collection
The Broken Down Comforter Collection
The Broken Down Comforter Collection is an album by the band Grandaddy, released in June 1999 by Big Cat Records. It is a combination of the tracks from the mini-album A Pretty Mess By This One Band and the EP Machines Are Not She.-Reception:...
.
V2 record deal
Unhappy with the efforts of Will Records, the band signed a worldwide deal with Richard BransonRichard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
's V2 Records
V2 Records
V2 Records is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2007. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI....
in 1999, their first release on the label the Signal to Snow Ratio
Signal to Snow Ratio
Signal to Snow Ratio is an EP by American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in 1999. It is included in the 2CD edition of their album The Sophtware Slump.- Track listing :# "Hand Crank Transmitter"# "Jeddy 3's Poem"# "MGM Grand"...
EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in September that year. In May 2000, they released their second album, The Sophtware Slump
The Sophtware Slump
The Sophtware Slump is the second studio album by American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in 2000. The album received strong reviews from most critics. It is seen by some as a concept album about problems concerning modern technology in society. The title is a reference to the sophomore slump,...
, to critical acclaim, with popular British music magazine NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
later placing it number 34 in their Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade list, and The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
describing it as "easily the equal of OK Computer
OK Computer
OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
". The album reached number 36 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, and the band's fanbase increased, including celebrities such as David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
, and Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler
Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
. By early 2001 the album had sold 80,000 copies worldwide. "The Crystal Lake
The Crystal Lake
"The Crystal Lake" is a single by American indie rock band Grandaddy from their second album, The Sophtware Slump, released on May 29, 2000. It peaked at number 38 on the UK Singles Chart...
", although not a hit when released as the first single from the album, gave the band their first UK top 40 single when reissued in 2001.
Around the time that The Sophtware Slump was released, Grandaddy was invited to open for Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
on his tour for Figure 8
Figure 8 (album)
Figure 8 is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Released by DreamWorks Records on April 18, 2000, it became Smith's second release on a major label and the last album he would complete before his death...
. On some nights, Smith would join Grandaddy onstage and sing lead vocals on portions of "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot". The band later opened for Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
on their US tour in Summer 2001. Also in 2001, the band's version of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Revolution
Revolution (song)
"Revolution" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The Beatles released two distinct arrangements of the song in 1968: a hard rock version as the B-side of the single "Hey Jude", and a slower version titled "Revolution 1" on the eponymous album The Beatles...
" was used in the film I Am Sam
I Am Sam
I Am Sam is a 2001 American drama film written and directed by Jessie Nelson, and starring Sean Penn as a father with a developmental disability, Dakota Fanning as his inquisitive seven-year-old daughter, and Michelle Pfeiffer as his lawyer...
.
Their third album, Sumday
Sumday
Sumday is the third studio album by American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in May 2003 by V2 Records. An expanded version with a second disc of live tracks was released later that year...
, recorded in Lytle's home studio, was released in 2003. The band promoted it with a pre-release US tour with Pete Yorn
Pete Yorn
Peter Joseph Yorn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who first gained international recognition after his debut record, Musicforthemorningafter, was released to critical acclaim in 2001.-Early history:Yorn's father is a dentist and his mother is a former concert pianist who worked as a...
followed by a three week European tour (including a performance at the Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
) and a larger US tour. Lytle described the album as "Grandaddy influenced by Grandaddy...the ultimate Grandaddy record".
Starting in late 2005, the Grandaddy song "Nature Anthem
Nature Anthem
-References:...
" could be heard in a Honda Civic
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a line of subcompact and subsequently compact cars made and manufactured by Honda. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded...
Hybrid television commercial, and was later used in a Coca Cola commercial.
In 2004 and 2005 Lytle recorded what would be the last Grandaddy album, Just Like the Fambly Cat, although by the time of its release the band had decided to split up. The title is a reference to Lytle's desire to leave Modesto, a town which he complained "sucks out people's souls". The album was largely the work of Lytle, who created the album over a year and ahalf in his home studio in Modesto, fuelled by alcohol, painkillers and recreational drugs, with only Burtch from the remainder of the band playing on it. It was preceded by the band's final release while together, the Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla
Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla
Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla is an EP by indie rock band Grandaddy, released on September 27, 2005. The name comes from something Jason Lytle saw on the vanity license plate of a large truck in his home town of Modesto, California...
EP.
Split and post-Grandaddy activities
In January 2006, after a meeting the previous month, Lytle announced that the band had decided to split up, citing the lack of financial income from being in the group as a reason. Just Like the Fambly Cat was released later that year as a farewell album. Lytle spoke to the NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
:
It was inevitable...On one hand our stubbornness has paid off, but on the other hand refusing to buy into the way things are traditionally supposed to be done has made things worse for us... The realistic part is it hasn't proved to be a huge money-making venture for a lot of guys in the band."
Lytle had called the meeting in a hotel in Modesto, the first time the band had been in a room together for two years. The feeling at the meeting was described by Lytle as the result of a breakdown in communication among the band members. According to Lytle the decision was not a surprise:
"Everybody knew, but we needed to make it formal, we needed to make it official. We needed to pay some respects to what we've done, just make it real."
Lytle also stated that he was "burnt out on touring" and cited his fears over his drug and alcohol problems as a factor in the band's split, and in 2009 he expressed his preference for being solo, saying that he was "a bit of a loner", and referring to his former bandmates, stated: "The main thing is not having four girlfriends to lug around with me all the time."
The band did not tour after the release of Just Like the Fambly Cat, though Lytle continued to make music, embarking on a couple of small solo tours, and working with M Ward on Hold Time. He has moved from Modesto to Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. Lytle has since released a solo album (Yours Truly, the Commuter
Yours Truly, the Commuter
Yours Truly, the Commuter is the debut solo album by American musician Jason Lytle. It was released on the ANTI- record label on May 19, 2009.-Track listing:- Credits :* Recorded, engineered, and produced by Jason Lytle...
) in 2009 and in late 2009 formed the band Admiral Radley
Admiral Radley
Admiral Radley is a California-based indie rock band formed in late 2009.The band is formed from members of the indie rock bands Grandaddy and Earlimart . Originally the band name was going to be Grandimart or Earlidaddy, a combination of both band's names...
with former Grandaddy drummer Aaron Burch.
In April 2007 Jim Fairchild put out his first solo record on Dangerbird Records
Dangerbird Records
Dangerbird Records is an independent record label located in Los Angeles, California. Founded by Jeff Castelaz and Peter Walker in 2004, the label is home to artists across the globe, as well as part of the burgeoning Silver Lake music scene. Their small roster of artists has enjoyed international...
, entitled Ten Readings of a Warning
Ten Readings of a Warning
Ten Readings of a Warning is the first album by All Smiles. It was released on Dangerbird Records on April 24, 2007.-Track listing:All songs written by Jim Fairchild.# "Early Man" – 0:37# "Summer Stay" – 3:39# "Killing Sheep" – 3:33...
, under the name All Smiles. He currently lives and works in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. He released the second All Smiles album entitled Oh For the Getting and Not Letting Go
Oh for the Getting and Not Letting Go
Oh for the Getting and Not Letting Go is the self-released second album by All Smiles. It was released on June 30, 2009.-Track listing:All songs written by Jim Fairchild.# "Maps to the Homes of Former Foes" – 3:48# "I Was Never the One" – 3:57...
, on June 30, 2009. Fairchild has also played for the bands Giant Sand
Giant Sand
Giant Sand is an American rock band, based in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The name is shortened from the original Giant Sandworms, a reference to the creatures in the Dune books. Overseen by singer-songwriter Howe Gelb, its membership has shifted over the years—at times with each album...
, Great Northern
Great Northern (band)
Great Northern is a rock group from Los Angeles composed of lead vocalist/keyboardist Rachel Stolte, guitarist Solon Bixler , bassist Matt Roveto, and drummer Justin Rocherolle...
, Lackthereof
Lackthereof
Lackthereof is the solo project of Danny Seim, a founding member of the Portland, Oregon-based band Menomena.-History:The first six Lackthereof albums were recorded at home and given out to Seim's friends on cassettes and CD-R's...
, and Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think...
. Fairchild began playing guitar for Modest Mouse in 2004; He continued playing with Modest Mouse again in 2009. In 2010 he was selected to lead a project at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
.
Burtch has been in a band called The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit. Burtch and Lytle, along with Earlimart
Earlimart (band)
Earlimart is an Indie rock band based in Los Angeles, California. They are named for the town of Earlimart, California. Their sound bears resemblance to Elliott Smith and Grandaddy, as well as to contemporaries like Pedro the Lion, with whom they performed in a 2004 tour. The band's sixth...
's Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray, have since formed a new band called Admiral Radley
Admiral Radley
Admiral Radley is a California-based indie rock band formed in late 2009.The band is formed from members of the indie rock bands Grandaddy and Earlimart . Originally the band name was going to be Grandimart or Earlidaddy, a combination of both band's names...
. Their debut album was released in the USA on July 13, 2010 via Espinoza's label The Ship.
Musical style and influences
Much of the band's music is characterized by Lytle's analog synthesizerAnalog synthesizer
An analog or analogue synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog computer techniques to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s such as the Trautonium were built with a variety of vacuum-tube and electro-mechanical technologies...
and the fuzzy guitar, bass and drums of the rest of the band. The band has variously been described as "bittersweet indie space rock", "neo-psychedelic, blissed-out indie rock", "dreamy, spacey psychedelic pop", and "an uneasy combination of warm, tactile guitars and affectless electronics". Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described the band's songs as "stately anthems orchestrated with full late-psychedelic pomp: fuzz-toned guitar strumming, rippling keyboards brawny drumbeats".
While the band have sometimes been described as 'alt country', in Lytle's view it is the sentiment of country music that the band embraced rather than the musical style. In their early days, the band's lo-fi
Lo-fi music
Lo-fi is lower quality of sound recordings than the usual standard for music. The qualities of lo-fi are usually achieved by either degrading the quality of the recorded audio, or using certain equipment. Recent uses of the phrase have led to it becoming a genre, although it still remains as an...
sound was compared to Pavement
Pavement (band)
Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
. The band has also been compared to Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
(even described as "the next Radiohead" in 2001), The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
, and Elliot Smith. With Sumday, the band were compared to the Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
and the Alan Parsons Project
The Alan Parsons Project
The Alan Parsons Project was a British progressive rock band, active between 1975 and 1990, consisting of singer Eric Woolfson and keyboardist Alan Parsons surrounded by a varying number of session musicians....
.
Lytle has cited both The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and E.L.O. as influences, stating in 2003 "I'm completely in tune with E.L.O. and Jeff Lynne - I know that guy like the back of my hand." He stated in 2009: "I think the majority of my musical influences were set in stone when I was five or six years old."
Lytle's vocals have drawn comparisons with Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
.
Lyrical themes
Common lyrical themes include technology and a resistance to change. Adrien Begrand, writing for PopMattersPopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
described the lyrics on The Sophtware Slump as "one's attempt to transcend the glut of technology in today's urban lifestyle, in search of something more real, more natural, more pastoral". Ben Sisario of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
stated that the band "provided the soundtrack to dot-com-era alienation, singing in a cracked yet still innocent voice of life spent staring into a computer screen". Ross Raihala, reviewing Sumday for SPIN
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
, identified what he called Lytle's "geeky identification with technology". On The Sophtware Slump, CMJ writer Richard A. Martin commented on Lytle's "sympathy for the lost souls and machines of the high-tech dot-com landscape". Lytle described his empathy with machines in 2003, stating "I find it easier dealing with certain things by living through inanimate objects" and how the song "I'm on Standby" is about Lytle relating to a mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
: "I was spending so much time learning the art of turning off, while still being 'on'".
Lytle said of the tracks on Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla: "For some reason, they are tied together by the idea of being fed up with your environment." He stated in 2001: "I have a growing appreciation for that which is simple and natural. I get that from the outdoors, and seeing the accumulation of clutter and waste and not being too happy about it."
There is also much humor in Lytle's songwriting, including the band's promotional Christmas single released in 2000, "Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland", which was also included on the charity compilation It's a Cool Cool Christmas
It's a Cool Cool Christmas
It's a Cool Cool Christmas is a Christmas charity compilation album released in 2000 by Xfm on Jeepster Records in aid of The Big Issue. The album includes a mixture of traditional Christmas songs and original songs with a Christmas theme.-Track listing:...
, described by Allmusic Tim DiGravina as possibly "the funniest song from 2000".
Recording techniques
The band's releases were generally recorded and mixed in makeshift studios based in homes, garages, and warehouses, although the last two albums were mixed in a dedicated facility. Although live performances used a full band, much of the recordings were done by Lytle alone using analog recorders and Pro ToolsPro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
. He recorded basic drum tracks in a soundproofed room and overdubbed cymbals and tom toms. He recorded his vocals close to the strings of a piano for what he described as a "ghostly effect".
Lytle described how the Grandaddy recordings became more of a solo effort and the right conditions for recording:
Earlier on I tried to include people as much as possible. Then I realised the magic is me really prying stuff out of my head and getting it on to tape, and that stuff doesn't happen unless I'm completely alone. Sometimes it's about the right amount of blood sugar, just slightly hungover. And I'm really affected by the weather. If it's too nice outside it's insane for me, the concept of being inside. Everybody talks about this whole technology versus nature thing and if it's anything that is it: look who my best friends are, a bunch of plastic and circuitry and electricity, when I should be running around getting chased by bumblebees.
Studio albums
- Under the Western FreewayUnder the Western FreewayUnder the Western Freeway is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in October 1997 on Will Records. The album was released in the UK in April 1998 by Big Cat Records, and later reissued in the US by Big Cat's parent company V2 Records.The track titled "A.M. 180" was...
(1997) #131 UK - The Sophtware SlumpThe Sophtware SlumpThe Sophtware Slump is the second studio album by American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in 2000. The album received strong reviews from most critics. It is seen by some as a concept album about problems concerning modern technology in society. The title is a reference to the sophomore slump,...
(2000) #36 UK - SumdaySumdaySumday is the third studio album by American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in May 2003 by V2 Records. An expanded version with a second disc of live tracks was released later that year...
(2003) #22 UK #84 US - Just Like the Fambly Cat (2006) #50 UK #171 US #10 US Independent Albums