Death From Above 1979

You're A Woman, I'm A Machine
Last Gang, 2004

I was living in Melbourne listening to twee indie records a few years ago when a really hot drummer friend of mine who had a mop of black hair and wore bracelets on his wrists invited me into his bedroom and pulled out a little pink album full of heavy-metal love songs. It was really quite sexy, now that I think of it. Anyway the album was called You're A Woman, I'm A Machine and had a picture of two men with elephant trunks instead of noses on the cover. It blew me away – all the more for having binged on nothing louder than Belle & Sebastian for God knows how long beforehand. The first song that I remember being able to actually hear, after the ringing in my ears subsided, was a menacing grind of bass and testosterone that sounded as if it had burst from the loins of someone in exceptionally tight jeans, set to lyrics about... falling in love and settling down? Sure, why not. "Come here baby, I love your company/ We could do it and start a family," panted drummer and singer Sebastien Grainger, like he was overdubbing a porn film. The track was 'Romantic Rights' and the band was a duo from Canada called Death From Above 1979.

A few months later Death From Above 1979 played their second and last Australian tour, to plug their first and only album. I went along to the Ding Dong Lounge with a few of the other journalists from Beat and argued my way inside with them. It was just Grainger and bassist Jesse F. Keeler on stage. Their set was the loudest thing I have ever heard. People moved to the back of the room and clamped their hands over their ears. Some took refuge in the stairwell. One guy, who hadn't been drinking, threw up from the bass. Somehow, and I'm still not sure how this is even possible, petite deputy editor Melanie Sheridan spent the whole night in the front row. The next day none of us could get it together to write a review, so Sheridan printed a copy of the emails that had been sent between us complaining about the door bitch who didn't have our names written down and how much the music had made us want to fuck. Soon afterwards Death From Above broke up. We lived with nasty looks at Ding Dong, while Grainger and Keeler began making electronic music under the names MSTRKRFT and The Rhythm Method respectively.