Death from Above 1979

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Death From Above 1979
Background information
Origin	Toronto, Ontario Canada
Genre(s)	Indie rock Synth rock
Years active	2002 - 2006
Label(s)	Ache Records Sound Virus Records Last Gang Records Vice Records 679 Recordings
Associated acts	MSTRKRFT Femme Fatale Black Cat #13
Website	Official website
Members
Jesse F. Keeler Sebastien Grainger

Death From Above 1979 was a Toronto based Canadian indie rock duo. The members were Jesse F. Keeler on bass/synths and Sebastien Grainger on vocals/drums. Refusing to employ a lead guitarist, they played loud synth infused dance-noise on the drum and bass combination alone. Their sound has been compared to Lightning Bolt. They were signed to Last Gang Records in Canada, Vice Records in the U.S. and 679 Recordings in the UK

Although they reportedly met at a Sonic Youth concert, Keeler and Grainger sometimes jokingly claimed to have met in prison, on a pirate ship, or in a gay bar, leading some journalists and fans to believe these hoaxes. They also claimed to have lived in a funeral home at one time. In 2005, the video for "Romantic Rights" won a VideoFACT award at the MuchMusic Video Music Awards. They played "Romantic Rights" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, with Max Weinberg on drums for part of the performance.

On 3 August 2006 Keeler, via the band's official website, announced the duo's split.

1 Name Change Controversy
2 Other Bands/Projects
3 Split
4 References
5 Discography
6 Samples
7 External links

[edit] Name Change Controversy

The band was originally named simply "Death From Above", a name which appears on their first released recording, Heads Up!. The duo changed their name after an unusually personal and acrimonious legal dispute with New York City dance music label Death From Above, with the members of DFA1979 denouncing Murphy in messages on their website. Death from Above had been a working name of LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The words "Death From Above" can also be seen on a helicopter in Apocalypse Now, which was released in 1979. "Death From Above" was also what the press referred to Ivan Drago as in Rocky IV.

The reason for the seemingly arbitrary date of 1979 comes from Sebastien Grainger's birth date. From Sebastien's perspective, this is what it stood for: "1979 is the year of my birth, 1979 is the year of Off the Wall, 1979 is the year of Pleasure Principle, 1979 is the last year of the last cool decade, 1979 is scratched into my arm, 1979 is scratched into my arm, 1979 is scratched into my fucking arm." He also stated in an interview given to MTV: "I was born that year, and it's never going to be wrong."[1]

[edit] Other Bands/Projects

[edit] MSTRKRFT

MSTRKRFT, a net-hack pseudonym of derivative Mastercraft – a homage to Kraftwerk and a play on the popular Canadian Tire tool brand is Jesse F. Keeler's electronic band along with producer Al-P. MSTRKRFT is currently signed to Last Gang records, and works out of Toronto. Their debut album was released on July 18, 2006. Two of their remixes can be found on Death From Above's 2005 release Romance Bloody Romance.

[edit] Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale was a band that featured Jesse F. Keeler before Death From Above 1979. The name comes from a song by the band The Velvet Underground. An EP, titled From the Abundance of the Heart, the Mouth Speaks, is available off the DFA1979 merchandise website. It's considered a more hardcore sounding version of Death From Above, and also notes Sebastien playing drums on an early release titled Fire Baptism. Sebastien Grainger played drums for Femme Fatale in live shows, as well. Femme Fatale is not dead, Jesse F. Keeler is now working on new material for the album and he said he loves doing FF Records.

[edit] Black Cat #13

Black Cat #13 was a band that also featured Jesse F. Keeler, and was started in 1998, lasting until 2000, when the band split due to musical differences. The band released all vinyl releases which are very hard to find and are considered collector's items by DFA1979. Unlike Femme Fatale, Sebastien had no role in Black Cat #13, though Al-P produced many of their releases.

[edit] Split

As of August 3, 2006 the band is officially dead. Jesse F. Keeler posted this on the official Death From Above 1979 forum:

	i know its been forever since i wrote anything on here. im sure by now most of you assume the band isn't happening anymore since there are no shows, no work on a new album, etc. well. i wanted to let you know that your assumptions are correct. we decided to stop doing the band... actually we decided that almost a year ago. we finished off our scheduled tour dates because there were good people working for us who relied on us to make a living and buy Christmas presents and pay rent etc. we couldn't just cancel everything and leave them out to dry... plus i think we wanted to see if we would reconsider after being out on the road. our label was really hoping that we would change our minds, so they asked us to keep quiet about the decision for at first. well, its been quite awhile now and we are still very sure the band wont happen again, so i guess its time to say something. (...)
—Jesse F. Keeler, [2]

[edit] References

The Brazilian band CSS references Death From Above 1979 in their single "Let's Make Love (and listen to Death from Above)". The video for the song even features a shot with two people playing bass, drums and wearings masks with elephant trunks for noses, in a reference to the cover art for You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, Heads Up and Romance Bloody Romance.