DFA 1979 Feel the QOTSA

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After two U.S. headlining club tours, Toronto rock duo Death from Above 1979 have been handpicked to open for Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails when they kick off their North American arena tour October 16th in San Antonio, Texas.

DFA 1979 is a heavy-ass, noisy, dance-punk rhythm section, comprised of singer/drummer Sebastien Grainger and bassist/keyboardist Jesse Keeler. Formed in 2001, the pair released an indie EP, Heads Up, finally releasing their full-length U.S. debut, You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, last fall to plenty of buzz.

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme did a remix for the DFA 1979 track "Black History Month" for a U.K. vinyl pressing -- also set to appear on DFA 1979's remix/B-sides/live album due in the fall -- and now the bands will be hitting the road together, even though they have yet to meet in person. Says Grainger, "We'd been passing notes like kids in school, through other bands."

The duo doesn't seem concerned about being dwarfed on such large stages and has no plans to alter its live presentation on the seventeen-date tour. "We're going to get the White Stripes in and ask them how they do it," jokes Keeler. "I think the answer is to not change anything, because what makes you famous will also keep you famous. We will continue to do what we do."

After playing summer festivals overseas, as well as some Canadian shows, DFA 1979 are writing for their next album, which they hope to have completed by the end of December. The band has a handful of songs finished now, which Keeler believes are a leg up on the punk/industrial "You're a Woman, I'm a Machine." "We're a lot better at what we do, and what's going to be different on the next record is, now that I've got your attention, I can do what I want to do. The last record we made was like [Radiohead's] Pablo Honey, and this one will be more like Kid A."

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Song Stories

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Fishbone | 1985

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

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