Duckweed Records Music Catalog: Grenade - Is An Out of The Body Experience

Grenade:

Is An Out of The Body Experience



Now available (9-20-99): "Grenade: Is An Out of The Body Experience." Innovative and experimental works of moody pop and noise by Brazil's Rodrigo Guedes, one of the last true 4-track pioneers! Go to the music room for free downloads of new Grenade songs.


From "IT'S AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE (99) - GRENADE (DUCKWEED)" by Alexandre Matias:

"In the beginning of their solo careers, Lennon and Barrett learned the meaning of being, what they were yelling about, their deepest fears, as the only way to tame fear was being scared. If John and Syd would meet then, they’d probably recognize each other doubts and worries. They would possibly go to each other houses and trade tapes. This lost album would became a legendary bootleg and - as homemade as it was - would be a lo-fi landmark album.

If that meeting had occurred, I’d surely point to the new Grenade album, It’s an Out of Body Experience, as directly influenced by the Barrett-Lennon colaboration in 1970. Because the songs Rodrigo Guedes in his homestudio put together are rock’n’roll classics in a low-profile stance. Take any song out of it - the rocking King of the Sailors of Doom, the sweet and lonesome Hometown, the creepy and easy Demons - and you got short demos of Rodrigo’s friendly relationship with inspiration.

As Lennon, his songs are catchy and loosely deep, heralding some surreal hope that somehow makes perfect sense. As Barrett, he desguises creativity as insanity and reality as utopia. As both he had no limits to get where he wants - getting his voice to the extremes of emotion, letting his feelings guide the song.

One of the Brazilian indie rock pioneers, Rodrigo started to rock in Killing Chainsaw, a noise foursome coming from Piracicaba that alongside Pin Ups, Mickey Junkies and Second Come turned Brazilian indie rock into a reality in early 90s. Killing Chainsaw released two albums, collector’s item these days (Killing Chainsaw and Slim Fast Formula), and split in late 1995. Rodrigo moved to Londrina, where he began his sonic experiments in a 4-track recorder. Besides learning the unlimited possibilities of home-recording, he also developed his purist pop ear, driving his sound to a lo-fi folk kind of music, rooted in the 60s songcrafting tradition. His debut as Grenade (A Child’s Introduction to Square Dancing) is almost a transition work, preparing for the great halt that is It’s an Out of Body Experience. He is at the same time releasing Shortwave Younglove Kingdom, a compilation of old songs and outtakes reworked as some b-side compilation. But he couldn’t help thinking about his next album. When you have to say it, you have to say it."

Approximate length: 42 minutes.

Track Listing:

  1. Growing Sun
  2. Angels (a Leonard Cohen poem)
  3. Liar Father Rise
  4. Fishing
  5. King of The Sailors of Doom
  6. Hometown
  7. Demons
  8. Rubber Made Heart
  9. Out of The Body
  10. She Will Fly
  11. Time For Pennies
  12. Razor Blades
  13. Restless
  14. The Sensorial Cake Language
  15. Down on Me
  16. Slow White Comeback


Featured in ZEITGEIST- Dec 1999 issue GRENADE - Is An Out Of Body Experience (Duckweed Records)

Tracks; 1. Growing Sun 2. Angels ( L Cohen poem) 3. Liar Father Rise 4. Fishing 5. King Of The Sailors Of Doom 6. Hometown 7. Demons 8. Rubber Made Heart 9. Out Of The Body 10. She Will Fly 11. Time For Picnics 12. Razor Blades 13. Restless 14. The Sensorial Cake Language 15. Down On Me 16. Slow White Comeback

Grenade is the brainchild of Rodrigo Cesar. Coming straight out of Londrina, Brazil, Rodrigo has laid down some extremely potent tracks on his home 4 track.

Working in the milieu previously inhabited by the likes of Fugazi, who I was intrigued to see that he has opened for, my nearest point of reference was Mr Mackaye and his colleagues circa "Red Medicine". There are also shades of Red House Painters and Mark Eitzels more introspective works, and it says a great deal for Rodrigo that some of the tracks on offer here easily stands up to comparison with those hallowed names.

If I had to pick one track to try and convert the unbelievers, it would have to be "Liar Father Rise", an extremely bitter track allied to a deceptively mellow backing. Add in a few selected samples spread across the CD, and you're left with a remarkably good offering.

As if that wasn't enough Rodrigo is also a talented graphic artist, and if you're sensible enough to purchase one of the "Global Lo-Fi Underground" samplers reviewed elsewhere you'll notice that he was also responsible for the artwork and sleeve design. Smart aleck:-)

Contact: Duckweed Records, 2442 NW Market St #354, Seattle WA, USA 98107
http://members.tripod.co.uk/duckweed

http://members.tripod.com/grenademusic



Grenade - Is An Out Of The Body Experience

In a living room of mirrors

The best thing that Rodrigo Guedes did when assuming his new solo career was to release the guitar, the noise and the volume. Because if it continued in the same road that opened in Killing Chainsaw it would probably have passed the rest of its life between electric buzzings and strident tow-trucks.

He has returned to the guitar and a 4-track tape recorder and sought musical forms extravasating the same sound and feeling of Killing Chainsaw, but in a less noisy way.

He has found the perfect sounds in folk and lo-fi. This mixture of sounds has begun to distil small flasks of musical poetry whose assumed godfathers were Ray Davies (of Kinks) and Neil Young.

In his first tape, A Child's Introducing to Square Dancing, he opened the doors on a small little street, but full of so many small rustic details that the boulevard was transformed into a small paradise within a big city. The name that he gave to this new paradise was Grenade.

The guitars and the whispered voices have continued in much the same way, except that the small villa, as if by some sleight of hand, has turned into an unknown country, and we have met several things but all in different ways. We have discovered that, through these perfect songs, Rodrigo has discovered the simplicity of psychedelia and, suddenly, his new godfathers have become John Lennon and Syd Barrett.

Is an Out of the Body Experience (Low Tech Recs / Duckweed Recs) is an incredible trip- a living room of mirrors and a store of fantasies, where sounds are deformed and dressed by the simple impulses that play with them. With the same creative ingenuousness of the bands of the sixties, Rodrigo tests new possibilities, playing with keyboards, samplers of films (2001, Lost in the Night, Julieta of the Spirits, Twin Peaks), sound collages, and several other possibilities in order to transform pop in something perfect.

The music intrigue for the theme: in spite of all the references that seem to appear to be about the use of drugs, the "experience" mentioned in the album title seems to be a spiritual one. He seeks the spirituality in common things, as if he could find the sense of the life inside of a box of toys. In spite of the references to Jesus Christ (Liar Father Rise and Rubber Made Heart), angels (in Leonard Cohen's poem, Angels) and demons (Demons), the spirituality longed for here is mental peace.

Rodrigo constantly sings of his native city (Hometown and Liar Father Rise) as if he could bring back the easiness of his days of childhood. He doesn't find the answer - better, he seems to find faith in the act of the search, as if this faith justified faith.

Is an Out of the Body Experience is well balanced between the author's two previous works - the noise of Killing Chainsaw and the quietness of the first tape - and it convinces us of this balance in moments of pure pop escapism (King of the Sailors of Doom) and freed noise (after screaming "Let your mind away", in Demons). The record is stuffed with great bits and it places Rodrigo at the height of the stairway of Brazilian independent rock, as well as being one of the best releases of the year so far (and I am not only speaking about indies or of Brazilian releases).

Alexandre Matias - Trabalho Sujo (Brazil)

Click here to learn more about Grenade
What to do?
[Music Room] [Contact Info] [Music Catalog] [Order] [Links]
[Bands] [The way forward] [Reviews and Quotes] [What's New] [Home]