Modern Skirts - Gramahawk (2011)

Athens, GA’s Modern Skirts are releasing their third full length “Gramahawk” on Jan 18.

Born of four hopeful rednecks and numerous misconceptions, Athens, GA’s Modern Skirts crept onto the scene in 2005 with a piano-laden debut, Catalogue of Generous Men. The record was well received, landing at #11 on Paste Magazines’ 50 Best Albums of 2005 and praised by Pop Matters for its “impeccably structured, gorgeous pop.” After successful tours around the South and sold out shows at Athens’ legendary 40 Watt Club, Modern Skirts took to the road nationally for almost two years. They quickly gained a small but passionate following, while losing massive amounts of steam and developing a creeping ambivalence towards their initial musical output.

Fearful of being pigeonholed as a piano-pop band, Modern Skirts began writing a follow-up to Catalogue of Generous Men. While penning this material, the band scored a string of European dates in the summer of 2008, opening for R.E.M. in Amsterdam and playing at Glastonbury, Rock Werchter, and London‘s O2 Wireless Festival. These massive shows would ultimately prove to be fruitless in the grand scheme, save for their inclusion here. Modern Skirts would soon return to the studio with David Lowery (Cracker) and Mike Mills (REM) handling production duties. All of Us in Our Night resulted and climbed its way to #22 on the CMJ charts. Darker and more electronic than its predecessor, it was praised by Under the Radar as “one of the indie albums of the year”. It was also heralded by Pitchfork as “bloodless, hermetic,” and “not as good as the first one.”

Craving the authenticity their safer records lacked, the boys in Modern Skirts discovered something startlingly fresh in singer Jay Gulley’s bedroom recordings. Inspired by these demos, they began work on their self-produced third record. The band threw out their conventional recording methods and crafted their own approach to capturing the songs on tape. The new material maintained the clever melodic sensibilities of earlier recordings, but something more unique emerged as the songs actualized. After four decadent and dangerous weeks in New Orleans, Gramahawk was complete.

In the spirit of building excitement for the upcoming Gramahawk, the band mastered and released a collection of the original bedroom recordings digitally with limited hand pressings as the Happy 81 EP on July 6, 2010. Despite a significant shift in focus, the record was warmly received by fans and critics alike; “a spectacular display of lo-fi pop with a real raw power to entertain” as Fensepost proclaimed.

Gramahawk reintroduces Modern Skirts as a band honest to their musical tastes and to their desire to create and perform both intellectually crafted and inherently catchy songs. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the record is insight into Gulley’s dark, imaginative and humorous brain. A song about Gulley’s second DUI, an ode to ’80s one hit wonder Jane Child, and a stomping, aggressive mantra about taking off his date’s top while being serenaded by a Mariachi band are just the beginning. There is a gleeful and twisted pop evil afoot here. Review by teamclermont.com

TRACKLIST
1. Jane Child
2. Happy 81
3. Under Bridges and Overpasses
4. Bumper Car
5. DUI
6. Tape Deck
7. Glass of Water
8. American Gothic
9. Shipshape
10. Hitler on Wheels
11. To Be a Branch Davidian