I ain't ever been this happy before: The Grates, The Ouch. The Touch.

Photo: lukeisnice

My Indie music review of The Grates' The Ouch. The Touch. is up at Suite 101. Here are some odds n sods I thought were interesting while researching the band.

The Grates have a biography at their webpage, which gives additional information about their debut album, Gravity Won't Get You High, produced by Brian Deck:

"Brian Deck's previous production credits include Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine and The Secret Machines… The Grates chose Brian Deck to produce their album after certain things from the spiritual plane collided with the real life plane, and were big fans of his production stylings. 'In Brian's production you can hear heaps of layers but they're all raw, like you can pick out every sound.'"

It's great when certain things from the spiritual plane collide with the real life plane—needs to happen more often, in fact.

The biography goes on to state that before acquiring their producer, The Grates recorded in "Jhon's dad's shed" and indeed on the back of The Ouch. The Touch. the credits state that "Wash Me" and "Trampoline" were recorded in "Gregor (papa) Patterson's family shed", which is endearing.

The biographical essay (graded D-) also talks about how Gravity Won't Get You High was mixed by Peter Katis, who has also mixed Interpol and Mercury Rev. I've heard the latter (excellent) but not the former.

The Grates recently played at SXSW, and with We Are Scientists in Vancouver in March—see simon.y's Flickr photo set, "We Are Scientists, The Grates @ The Red Room, 03/29/06".

There's also The Grates Flickr photo pool, for those interested in uploading their photos.

Related links:

Review, The Grates' The Ouch. The Touch.
Blog entry, The Ouch. The Touch.

Note: Links updated to point to where reviews are now housed.