Grandaddy

Yeah, they're bearded and broken. They wear tired trucker caps, dirty tees and seem to be looking for lost change on stage. Even their name sounds drunk and sleepy. But Grandaddy can't help but write great songs. While the band's latest release, Sumday, doesn't meet the expectations set by their previous album, The Sophtware Slump, Grandaddy keeps some elements constant: stories of love-weary technocrats and smart, smart pop. Singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jason Lytle and the boys are well-established alongside Super Furry Animals, the Shins and Guster as a band that knows the value of good songwriting--short, hooky and Moog-tweaked. Their penchant for fuzzy, filtered noise only embroiders some of the most catchy and unshakeable melodies this side of the Flaming Lips. The band's upcoming show at the Granada is sure to feature many of the down-tempo tales of modern woe that weighed down much of Sumday's first half, but expect Lytle's bare-but-beautiful tenor to find its way from behind the stacks of keyboards more forcefully on "Now It's On," "The Go in the Go-For-It" and their traditional closing epic, "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot. "