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Larkin grimm / live preview
LA Weekly / by Falling James
No matter how traditional her tunes may seem at first, once she adds her layers of fairylike vocal arrangements, they become mysteriously, untraceably exotic.
LA Weekly
Michael Gira, Larkin Grimm
DATE/TIME:SUN., MARCH 8, 7:00PM
PARPLEXED
By Falling James
Larkin Grimm
The music that Michael Gira makes these days is nothing like the fearsome
avalanches of sound he stirred up back in the '80s, when the Swans'
experiments in terror and noise were even more intense than Sonic Youth's
early dissonant period. With the later Swans lineups and the subsequent
Angels of Light, Gira went in a contrastingly mellow direction, revealing an
unexpected melodicism in his somnolent acoustic songs. He's had just as much
impact in recent years as a producer (Akron/Family, Devendra Banhart) and as
the founder of Young God Records, introducing the world to such eccentric
performers as Larkin Grimm. Raised on a commune by a religious cult, Grimm
attended Yale in between stints in Guatemala and Alaska, where she lived in
a tent. Her new Young Gods CD, Parplar, was co-produced by Gira and blends
her old-timey guitar plucking with arty atmospherics and bizarre lyrics,
such as the strange childbirth anthem "Dominican Rum" and the warped folk
tune "How to Catch a Lizard." No matter how traditional her tunes may seem
at first, once she adds her layers of fairylike vocal arrangements, they
become mysteriously, untraceably exotic.