\n
On January 11, 2019, guitarist Phil D\u00fcrr returned to the great Mothership up in the sky. Between his international familial bonds and his membership in such hard-touring bands as Big Chief and Five Horse Johnson, he was mourned by friends, fans, and family literally around the world. His loss was most keenly felt in Detroit, Michigan, his hometown since moving to the area from Mexico as a child, and where he was in the middle of recording the latest Giant Brain album.<\/p>\n
After the pain and tears and toasts and reflection, bandmates Al Sutton, Andy Sutton and Eric Hoegemeyer endeavored to finish what they had started. Coming out four years after Phillip\u2019s passing, Grade A Gray Day is Giant Brain\u2019s last musical will and testament, serving as both a tribute to their departed bandmate and the final chapter in a collaboration that reaches back to the 1990s, when the band members laid the groundwork for the Detroit rock renaissance of the following century.<\/p>\n
Long fixtures of the local scene, Giant Brain coalesced between sessions at Rustbelt Studios, Al Sutton\u2019s recording facility in Royal Oak which has hosted regional and national rock royalty. One of the best guitarists in town, no small feat given the terrain, D\u00fcrr laid down 6-string ideas that rolled as much as rocked while\u00a0the Sutton brothers supplied taut rhythmic support and technical expertise. Their mix of Krautrock grooves, Detroit attitude and ambient textures was first heard on 2007\u2019s Plume. Producer and programmer Eric Hoegemeyer would join the band for 2009\u2019s Thorn of Thrones, with both albums being released on Small Stone Records.<\/span><\/p>\nFrom its packaging to the songs therein, Grade A Gray Day is a family affair. Sue Lott and Scott Hamilton, who played with D\u00fcrr in fellow Small Stoners Luder, guest on different songs, Detroit music luminaries Kenny Tudrick, Billy Reedy, James Simonson, Bob Ebeling and Darrel Eubank sit in on others. UK transplant and Keeping The Blues Alive recording artist Joanne Shaw Taylor lays down searing guitar leads on two tracks and the album artwork was provided by underground art legend Mark Dancey, whose work has graced album covers by Soundgarden and who played guitar alongside D\u00fcrr in Big Chief.<\/p>\n
Despite being a studio entity, Giant Brain have always sounded like a band. There\u2019s no denying, however, much of their unique musical voice was centered around Phil D\u00fcrr\u2019s guitar playing, his ability to change gears from gritty to dreamy in the course of a single verse, his love of blues rock gravity and post-punk atmospherics, always thinking in the back of his mind, \u201cWhat would Eddie Hazel play here?\u201d At times sad and at other points a celebration, D\u00fcrr\u2019s presence pulses and reverberates throughout Grade A Gray Day, whether in his guitar interplay with Joanne Shaw Taylor on the opener \u201cMunich,\u201d or the plangent chords hovering underneath Sue Lott\u2019s vocals on \u201cBetween Trains,\u201d the album\u2019s final track and a moving farewell.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Benjamin H. Smith<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Giant Brain is:
\nPhil Durr: guitars, bass
\nAndy Sutton: bass, vocals
\nEric Hoegemeyer: drums, keys, programming, synths
\nAl Sutton: percussion, programming, keysAdditional musicians:
\nJoanne Shaw Taylor: guitars on tracks 1 and 4.
\nBilly Reedy: guitar on tracks 2 and 5.
\nJim Simonson: bass on track 2.
\nBob Ebeling: wine glasses on track 3, drums on track 5.
\nDarrel Eubank: vocals on track 3.
\nScott Hamilton: guitar on track 5.
\nSue Lott: vocals on track 6.
\nKen Tudrick: piano on track 6.All songs written and produced by Giant Brain.
\nRecorded at Rustbelt Studio, Royal Oak, MI.
\nEngineered and mixed by Al Sutton and Eric Hoegemeyer.
\nMastered by Chris Goosman at Baseline Audio Labs, Ann Arbor, MI.
\nArtwork by Mark Dancey.
\n\u201cBetween Trains\u201d lyrics by Sue Lott.
\nJoanne Shaw Taylor appears courtesy of KTBA Records.In Memoriam: Phil Durr, Billy RivkinFor all our loved ones waiting for us.<\/p>\n
Maximum volume only<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Tracklist:<\/p>\n
\n- \u00a0Munich \u2013 (08:37)<\/li>\n
- Terminator: (Where an astronaut dies in space) \u2013 (08:29)<\/li>\n
- The Variac: (His consciousness reawakens) \u2013 (03:40)<\/li>\n
- Fore: (Rage at the cruelty of forced transhumanism) \u2013 (06:51)<\/li>\n
- Systems Failure: (Uprising, destruction, and the\u00a0escape) \u2013 (06:22)<\/span><\/li>\n
- Between Trains \u2013 (07:19)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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