Im pretty sure If I were an American teenager, there is no other band I'd be a disciple of - Death Grips would be my fucking band! Both the fuck-you attitude & sonic intensity would simply be irresistible.
Sadly I'm an old fart (mosh pits are way too dangerous) I'm also now super jaded & suspect major label trickery or fake hype in most music these days. I do however believe that these guys are the real deal.
For neally a year, I've really wanted to see Death Grips live in a small venue - before they either blew up too large, or they internally imploded because of the stresses caused by all the hype surrounding them.
Although the elements that make up their incredible relentless "noise" are nothing new, Its pretty challenging trying to describe their live sound, however it's the most original music I've heard in a long time. For starters, no guitars! To my knowledge no one has ever cohesively smashed together the anger of American Hardcore, with spoken-word poetry like vocals but delivered with machine gun like Hip Hop pace & flow, all backed & orchestrated with stunning state-of-the-art Techno & Ghetto Bass production. Add sampling from such disparate places as Link Wray, TV News & Bowie, It all gels into something like a guitar-less slow-motion Speed Metal tsunami.
The sound in the room was dope. I feel super fortunate that Ned (who turned me onto them) & I caught them in an intimate club setting. Although this gig was probably very very tame compared to the normal fan driven insanity they are used to, the room was still full of electricity- even from the NPR & CMJ heads who put it on. They were mostly Tweeting & blogging it, instead of getting stuck in!
I just wish I could remember not openly display the sleeve on my iPhone when listening to the new album in rush hour subways.
