The Grimm Generation
Windsor, Connecticut, United States | SELF
Music
Press
" Lyrics are worth paying attention to, as in the closer “End of the World” when Champagne sings, “Remember the day your brother was killed, we were up in your bedroom with a shoebox full, your mom sat downstairs reading magazines and her TV Guide.” That got my attention instantly." - New Haven Register
It’s a rarity that a heretofore unknown band from the southern region of Connecticut can make an indelible impression with their debut album. But the Windsor, CT-based band, The Grimm Generation’s The Last Record Party is truly a songwriting fête that explores the not-so-shocking underbelly of suburban sexual ennui and apocalyptical romances. As with their previous three EP’s, these latest songs are a rollicking collection of odes to illicit pleasures and bad relationships, as well as a smattering of sexual tension and seduction that borders on exploitation. And thankfully, this duo in their 40’s still has the energy to pursue these diversions.
The aptly named ingénue, Carmen Champagne (vocals), and her foil, Jason P. Krug (guitar and vocals), have created a whopping 18-track song-cycle that’s part fictional memoir and part dirty secret. The two came together a few years ago after hooking up on the online dating service, Match.com. While that date didn’t particularly produce romantic sparks, it did set off a creative online collaboration between the two. Champagne and Krug authored Say Anything: Dispatches on Love, Lust and Longing from The Grimm Generation, a collection of journal entries or essays about amour. Much like a musical partnership of trading licks, the two swapped revelatory secrets that cemented their musical partnership.
The duo’s debut album is a bitches’ brew of swampy blues, finger-poppin’ hipster jive, and outsider freak-folk. They enlist a number of studio pros to beef up their arrangements, which are super bad-ass. The stellar horn and keyboard arrangements give this recording a punch that was missing in their earlier recordings.
Champagne and Krug have received favorable comparisons to the Velvet Underground, X and The Doors. While that’s all fine and dandy, here are a few more influences which can be posited: Marianne Faithful meets Everything But the Girl, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan as fronted by Deborah Harry. Champagne’s throaty vocals are in stark contrast to Krug’s smoother delivery. Nevertheless the interplay between the two on songs like “Keep It,” and “I Fall For Everyone” create sparks and a dynamism not seen since Sonny and Cher. No Mates of State here.
- Enquirer.Com
Discography
'The Last Record Party' (CD - 2011)
'The Book Of Love' (EP (2011)
'I Like To Watch' (EP - 2011)
'The End Of The World' (EP - 2010)
Photos
Bio
From the flaming wreckage of the 'Record Industry' arise The Grimm Generation.
Carmen Champagne and Jason P. Krug met for one date, then thought better of it, so instead co-authored a book, 'Say Anything: Dispatches on Love, Lust and Longing from The Grimm Generation'. One night, Jason dropped by with acoustic in hand and convinced Carmen to sing. And the 'Post-Apocalyptic Pop Stars', The Grimm Generation was born.
The GG design is simple: one guitar and two singers. The hook comes in the 'confessions', the loud and public sharing of their perception of modern 'love', told over tunes based on blues+country+glam+show music (= Rock And Roll) featuring emotionally wrung out vocals leaving no doubt that these are real moments, captured, reshaped, and harmonized with.
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