Last year, imaginative Canadian Rock duo Death from Above released (and toured heavily behind) its latest album, Outrage! Is Now. The twosome is now back on the road on its Heads Up! Is Now tour, named for DFA’s remarkable 2002 debut release, the 2002 EP Heads Up, which they’ll be playing in full (along with other material from throughout their career because Heads Up is only about 15 minutes long).
Death from Above’s singular instrumental set-up has resulted in a compellingly unique mix of heavy, noisy, catchy and danceable Post Punk that is among the most enduring “AltRock” of the 21st century. Drummer Sebastien Grainger provides the high-wire melodic acrobatics (think Ozzy Osbourne raised in the Manchester, UK Factory Records scene) while also pumping out the beats behind the drum kit, and Jesse F. Keeler holds down the musical end largely through his tone-variant bass playing, as well as some synth additives.
DFA famously feuded with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, whose record label, also named Death From Above, served the band with a cease and desist order over its moniker. The legal wrangling complicated the roll-out of the band’s 2004 album debut, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine, which was released under the name Death from Above 1979. Two years after You're a Woman’s release, Death from Above 1979 called it quits. But the band returned in 2011 for some shows, Keeler and Grainger clicked again creatively and the pair released a new album, The Physical World, in 2014.
Apparently, the Murphy beef was squashed ahead of Outrage!’s release, because the duo officially reverted back to the Death from Above name, sans 1979, for the album.
