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Modesto, California's Grandaddy are an interesting piece of work -- literally. Self-recorded and produced, the band's singer/ringleader Jason Lytle mixes and mashes keyboards, found sounds and traditional rock instruments into densely layered, textured pop songs. Heralded as Lo-Fi geniuses for quite some time, the steady progression of Grandaddy's eclectic and peculiar sound into a streamlined and perfectly orchestrated one seems the product of a great deal of work -- not just a tortured artist's brilliance. The music has a relaxed, wry sort of bittersweetness engrained in it (see: Pavement), but Grandaddy ups the ante a bit, throwing wild oscillations and the sound of helicopters into ingratiating pop songs right alongside the expected bass, guitars and drums. Huge underground success in Europe has changed the rules for Grandaddy lately, and with all the new studio effects and gadgetry the band can now afford in their Modesto studio, one reels at the thought of what happens next.
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