Modern Skirts

Born of four hopeful rednecks and numerous misconceptions, Athens, GA's Modern Skirts crept onto the scene in 2005 with its piano-laden debut record, Catalogue of Generous Men. The record was very well received, landing at 11 on Paste Magazines' 50 Best Albums of 2005. Pop Matters also praised the debut for its "impeccably structured, gorgeous pop". After some marginal touring success around the South and several sold out shows at Athens' legendary 40 Watt Club, Modern Skirts took to the road for two years. During that time, they 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 working on songs for a follow-up to Catalogue of Generous Men. While penning this new 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 and forgettable, 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 was the resulting effort that climbed its way to 22 on the CMJ charts. Darker and more electronic than its predecessor, All of Us in Our Night 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". Still searching for a truly unique and singular voice, the boys in Modern Skirts discovered something startlingly fresh in singer Jay Gulley's bedroom recordings and immediately began work on their self-produced third record. Using Jay's demos as a template, the band threw out the conventional recording procedures of previous sessions and began innovating an approach to capturing the songs on tape. The new material maintained the clever melodic sensibilities of earlier recordings, but something much more unique began to reveal itself 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 digitally released a collection of the original bedroom recordings as the Happy 81 EP on July 6th. Despite a significant shift in focus, the record was warmly received by fans and critics alike. Fensepost.com cheerfully proclaimed Happy 81 "a spectacular display of lo-fi pop with a real raw power to entertain". Gramahawk reintroduces Modern Skirts as a band honest to their musical tastes. These songs strut with a creepy swagger made from lost vintage beats, freaky found sounds, and booming drums. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the record, though, is its insight into Gulley's dark, imaginative, and humorous brain. A song about Gulley's second DUI, an ode to 80's one-hit wonder Jane Child, and a stomping, aggressive mantra about taking off your date's top while being serenaded by a Mariachi band are just the beginning. There is a gleeful and twisted pop evil afoot here.