#blu wav

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Track of the day // Grandaddy - Watercooler

From the album Blu Wav, available February 16th 2024 on Dangerbird Records.

[thebowerypresents]

Grandaddy Take a Look Back and a Peak Ahead at Brooklyn Steel on Wednesday

Grandaddy – Brooklyn Steel – October 15, 2025

Around the turn of the millennium there was an explosion of creative new sounds under the umbrella of indie rock with an accompanying plethora of seminal albums. It’s no surprise that now, a quarter-century later, there is a parallel explosion of tours revisiting these records. These shows are a chance for nostalgic throwback, for fans to ask, “Has it really been this long?” and to reassess their taste, and for the Youngs to experience that creative explosion for the first time, albeit with the ripening and fermenting of time, placing those LPs in their proper spot on the All-Timer Record Shelf of Fame.

Given this context, there’s no surprise that Grandaddy would take the opportunity to revisit their critically acclaimed second album, The Sophtware Slump, 25 years after its release (has it really been 25 years !?), and the tour for it stopped off at Brooklyn Steel on Wednesday night. The album, a sort-of dystopian sci-fi concept record, opens with “He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot,” the band performing in front of a slightly animated version of the album art. Frontman Jason Lytle’s voice showing those 25 years but also sounding better with age, singing, “Well it’s just nice to have you back again.” By the time the band reached the fourth song, “Crystal Lake,” with its nifty synthesizers, a crowd sing-along on the bridge, and a cathartic rock-out closing, the full house was pretty much in every song’s an “Oh, yeah, I love this one” mode.

The record always felt forward-looking but hearing the mix of vocals and synths live in 2025 confirmed the ahead-of-its-time sound of The Sophtware Slump. “Broken Household Appliance National Forest” summed up the sound in a single song with its push-pull, quiet-loud dichotomy. The arc of the tracking perfectly suited a live playthrough with the closing pair of “Miner at the Dial-a-View” and “So You’ll Aim Toward the Sky” mixing the sci-fi prog-folk with a triumphant finish, Lytle’s raised fists capping the achievement.

After a short beak, the band returned to fill out the show with a short second set drawing from the rest of the Grandaddy catalog accompanied by a slideshow of photographs from the group’s history. This portion was highlighted by a dog-themed twosome with Lytle’s “Ghost of My Old Dog,” featuring the strongest vocal harmonies of the night over a warm mix of synths and acoustic guitars, followed by the danceable “Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake,” off their third album, 2003’s Sumday. This second set stood solidly on its own but also served to give a more historical context to the first, how the band got to the album and where they went from there, while also, perhaps, asking where do Grandaddy go from here.—A. Stein | @Neddyo

(Grandaddy play Union Transfer in Philadelphia on Saturday.)

Photos courtesy of Hillary Safadi | @hillasafadi 

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Jason vs J: Release Rundown - Grandaddy and J Mascis

Words: Ben Forrester To celebrate new releases from two of US indie rock’s most beloved songwriters, here are our thoughts on the highly anticipated new albums from J Mascis and Grandaddy. Grandaddy – Blu Wav(Dangerbird Records) Although Grandaddy has always been very much a band dynamic, I think it’s fair to say that it is the brainchild of vocalist and guitarist Jason Lytle. Which is why it…

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Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 2/16/24

A final Batch of new episodes is on the way (CREDIT: Disney+. © 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.) Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out. Movies –Madame Web (Theaters) –Oscar Nominated Short Films (Theaters) TV –Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Season 11 Premiere (February 18 on…

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Grandaddy - Watercooler