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Death from Above 1979

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Death from Above 1979
Jesse F. Keeler & Sebastien Grainger
Background information
Origin	Toronto Ontario Canada
Genre(s)	Indie rock, Dance punk, Alternative rock
Years active	2001–2006
Label(s)	Ache, Sound Virus, Last Gang, Vice, 679
Associated acts	MSTRKRFT Femme Fatale Black Cat #13
Website	Official Site
Members
Sebastien Grainger Jesse F. Keeler

Death from Above 1979 was a Toronto based Canadian indie rock/synth rock duo. The members were Jesse F. Keeler on bass/synths/backing vocals and Sebastien Grainger on vocals/drums. Refusing to employ a lead guitarist, they played loud synth-infused dance-punk on the drum and bass combination. They were signed to Last Gang Records in Canada, Vice Records in the U.S. and 679 Recordings in the UK. Although they reportedly met at a Sonic Youth concert, Keeler and Grainger sometimes jokingly claimed to have met in prison, on a pirate ship, or in a gay bar, leading some journalists and fans to believe these hoaxes. They also claimed to have lived in a funeral home at one time. In 2005, the video for "Romantic Rights" won a VideoFACT award at the MuchMusic Video Awards. They played "Romantic Rights" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, with Max Weinberg on drums for part of the performance. On 4 August 2006 Keeler, via the band's official website, announced the duo's split.

1 Name change controversy
2 Split
3 Discography
4 Videography
5 Related bands and projects
6 Trivia
7 Samples
8 External links

Name change controversy

The band was originally named "Death from Above", a name which appears on their first released recording, Heads Up . The duo changed their name after a legal dispute with New York City dance music label DFA Records, with the members of Death from Above 1979 denouncing LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy in messages on their website. Death from Above had been a working name of Murphy's prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The reason for the seemingly arbitrary date of 1979 comes from Sebastien Grainger's birth date. From Sebastien's perspective, this is what it stood for: "1979 is the year of my birth,
1979 is the year of Off the Wall,
1979 is the year of Pleasure Principle,
1979 is the last year of the last cool decade,
1979 is scratched into my arm,
1979 is scratched into my arm,
1979 is scratched into my fucking arm." He also stated in an interview given to MTV: "I was born that year, and it's never going to be wrong."[1] It could also be noted that "Death From Above" is the name of one of the American helicopters in the film Apocalypse Now, while 1979 was the year the film was released. Despite the controversy the band were credited as "Death From Above" on "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland". However this could be due to the fact that the Tony Hawk games shorten song titles and artists on their soundtracks.

Split

DFA1979 live in NYC March 2005.

As of August 12, 2006 the band officially disbanded. Jesse F. Keeler posted the following message on the official Death from Above 1979 forum:

“	I know its been forever since I wrote anything on here. I'm sure by now most of you assume the band isn't happening anymore since there are no shows, no work on a new album, etc. well. I wanted to let you know that your assumptions are correct. We decided to stop doing the band... Actually we decided that almost a year ago. We finished off our scheduled tour dates because there were good people working for us who relied on us to make a living and buy Christmas presents and pay rent etc. We couldn't just cancel everything and leave them out to dry... Plus I think we wanted to see if we would reconsider after being out on the road. Our label was really hoping that we would change our minds, so they asked us to keep quiet about the decision for at first. Well, it's been quite a while now and we are still very sure the band won't happen again, so I guess it's time to say something.(...)	”
—Jesse F. Keeler, [2]

On MuchMusic's television program "The New Music", Keeler further explained why the band split. He claimed it was due to disagreements with bandmate Grainger on many levels, including creative differences, music style, etc.

Discography

Videography

"Romantic Rights"
"Blood on Our Hands"
"Black History Month"
"Pull Out"
"Sexy Results" (MSTRKRFT Edition)

Related bands and projects

MSTRKRFT

MSTRKRFT is Jesse F. Keeler's electronic band along with producer Al-P. MSTRKRFT is currently signed to Last Gang records, and works out of Toronto. Their debut album was released on July 18, 2006. Two of their remixes can be found on Death from Above's 2005 release Romance Bloody Romance.

Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale was a band that featured Jesse F. Keeler before Death from Above 1979. It is considered to have a more "hardcore" sound than Death from Above. Sebastien Grainger played drums for Femme Fatale in live shows, as well. Jesse F. Keeler is planning on releasing a new album in the future, but MSTRKRFT is his top priority.

Black Cat #13

Black Cat #13 was a band that also featured Jesse F. Keeler, and was started in 1998, lasting until 2000, when the band split due to musical differences. The band released all vinyl releases which are very hard to find and are considered collector's items by DFA1979 fans. Unlike Femme Fatale, Sebastien had no role in Black Cat #13, though Al-P produced many of their releases.

Sebastien Grainger and Les Montagnes

Sebastien Grainger is currently making a solo album with his band, Les Montagnes. He was planning on releasing a split 7" with Jewish Legend but this project has since been placed on hold.

Bloc Party

Both Jesse F. Keeler and Sebastien Grainger performed the song "Luno (Bloc Party vs. Death from Above 1979)" on Bloc Party's Silent Alarm Remixed album. Bloc Party's lead singer Kele Okereke initially wanted a different track in place of the cover which resulted in scepticism from DFA1979 fans.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Brazillian electro-rock band CSS released a single called Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above in 2006.
Before adding the "1979" to the end of their name, the announced new name of the band was "First To Fight".
It has been speculated that Death From Above 1979 would reunite to perform at the 2008 Coachella Festival, although this has not yet been confirmed by any of the festival, label or band officials.
Both Sebastien and Jesse feature in the video for Masia One's single The Hazing playing drums and bass and dressed as a werewolf and vampire respectivly. Despite this it is probably not them performing either instrument on the track and is merely meant as a cameo. However Masia's mention of JFK (Jesse's initials) in her opening dictum suggests he may have produced the track