Grandaddy

Laying spacey swathes of analog synth over chugging indie-rock guitars, Grandaddy emerged from Modesto, CA, in 1992 after frontman Jason Lytle was sidelined from professional skateboarding by a knee injury. By the time the band debuted with 1997’s Under the Western Freeway, their early punk influences had given way to a rootsy, ramshackle twang perfectly supported by Lytle’s creaky singing. Yet those slacker vibes masked the sweeping vision behind 2000’s The Sophtware Slump, a quasi-concept album about technology’s deleterious effect on society. It became Grandaddy’s international breakthrough, and was followed by two more albums of disheveled grandeur before the band splintered in 2006. Lytle pivoted to mellow, intimate records on his own, while guitarist Jim Fairchild did a sizable stint in Modest Mouse as well as pursuing solo work under the name All Smiles. Grandaddy resurfaced in the next decade, applying their signature low-slung mix of catchiness and crunchiness to 2017’s Last Place.