Sophtware Slump

Grandaddy includes: Jason Lytle.
Recorded at Little Portugal, Modesto, California.
Includes bonus disc THROUGH A FROSTY PLATE GLASS E.P.
Grandaddy: Jason Lytle.
Recorded at Little Portugal, Modesto, California.
THE SOPHTWARE SLUMP is a kick in the pants for anyone who believes that indie-rock is, after a notable creative peak in the mid-'90s, dying a slow and stupefying death. Not with underground sounds like these around. Guided by Jason Lyttle's vision of spacey, mid-fi country-rock, Modesto, CA's Grandaddy unites a mess of guitar-based, late-90's fringe-musics into coherent statements about humanity and technology--and if it at times sounds a lot like OK COMPUTER or a lower-fidelity SOFT BULLETIN, that's partly the point.
As the band has grown, the classic indie sound of Pavement has ceased to be its sole touchstone. Sparklehorse's studio-created ambient-Gothic bleeds have taken a strong hold, as has Radiohead's symphonic balladeering. But, mixed in an unselfconscious manner, these influences underline Lyttle's desire to have the music convey the era's confusion. So the epic mid-tempo opener "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot" recalls the stilted pace of "Paranoid Android," "Broken Household Appliance National Forest" is a metaphorically lumbering rocker whose sounds spill over like punky stoners doing Black Sabbath, and "Chartsengrafs" rocks out in first-rate VIVADIXIE fashion. SOPHTWARE is the sum of its grand parts.