NYLON - March 2008 - (Page 150) BIG BASH Fronted by powerhouse singer-drummer singer Kristin Gundred, Grand Ole Party kick out the kind of jams it’s impossible to ignore. By Mikael Wood. Photographed by Jeff Holladay Though she sings and plays drums in San Diego’s Grand Ole Party, Kristin Gundred did not grow up dreaming of someday sitting on Don Henley’s stool. “[Guitarist] John Paul [Labno] and I were jamming with some other folks, and we were without a drummer,” Gundred says from the GOP tour van as it rolls across the Midwest. “I was the only one not doing anything else, so I kind of stepped in. I didn’t think I had a good sense of rhythm, and it was pretty awkward the first two or three times I did it. But it’s ended up pretty well.” Since forming in 2005, Grand Ole Party (which also includes bassist Michael Krechnyak) have become one of the most dependable draws on the SoCal indie scene, thanks in part to the band’s connections (their managers’ other clients include Coldplay and Interpol) but mostly to their unique sound, which reinvents crunchy rock ’n’ roll as sleek funk ’n’ soul. On the band’s first full-length, Humanimals, Gundred sings about moonshine, infidelity, and reality TV in a voice that suggests Robert Plant fronting the Breeders, while Labno and Krechnyak lay down bottom-heavy grooves far chewier than what you’ll find in your standard indie-group fare. “There’s not another band like them,” says Rilo Kiley singer-guitarist Blake Sennett, who produced Humanimals. “Their songs are almost like rap or R&B songs in terms of their structure. The guitar playing reminds me of Mark Ribot’s on a Tom Waits record, and Kristin’s beats are like breakbeats. It’s a hard thing to pull off, but they totally do.” Labno says the trio’s rhythmic focus is a product of Grand Ole Party’s roots in a freeform jam scene in San Francisco, where he and Gundred lived and played before heading south and hooking up with Krechnyak. “You can kind of tell bands that have only ever played songs they wrote together,” the guitarist says. “Just jamming makes for a more comfortable sound; it makes things more natural.” “We definitely look to jams to bring ideas out,” adds Gundred, “which probably infuses our songs with something funky. We all really like hip-hop and funk and Afrobeat and reggae, but we also like good pop songs. We’re just trying to write catchy, intelligent, groovy music.” Sennett, who first checked out GOP on MySpace after a friend recommended them, says his work in the studio with the trio was a learning experience. “I’d never produced another band before, and they’d never been produced before,” he admits. “So at first it was a little weird. They’re a very insular group, which is part of what makes them so special; they shut themselves off from outside influences in a way and make this thing in a petri dish. I’d be in the control room behind glass, but there was no, ‘OK, guys, let’s give this a shot!’ They basically just ignored me completely.” Eventually, though, the three warmed up to Sennett’s input. “They came to trust me and we were able to communicate about the process, and I think we got it right.” With Humanimals out, Grand Ole Party plan to spend 2008 on the road building an audience outside California, a mission they got a headstart on last year with an opening slot on Rilo Kiley’s fall tour. U.S. to Labno, being on the road is the best practice a band can ask for. “And it sure beats working a menial job,” he says. What was the guitarist’s last? “Working in a coffeeshop, which was actually the best menial job I’ve had. But toward the end I still got sick of washing dishes.” makeup: ziya rayani
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