Grant-Lee Phillips - Biography
By Marcus Kagler
After fronting the critically acclaimed Grant Lee Buffalo through four albums of groundbreaking americana-tinged alt-rock, Los Angeles based singer/songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips closed the GLB shop in 1999 and built a modest solo career founded on a stripped-down DIY aesthetic. Armed with the silken gravitas of a crooner, a penchant for historical narrative, and an innate ability to craft compelling pop songs, Phillips broke down the complex layers of instrumentation that anchored his GLB compositions and turned his attention to the bare essentials. Essentially starting from scratch, Phillips entered the home studio of producer Jon Brion and laid down a handful of skeletal tracks accompanying himself on nothing but a haunting piano or an acoustic guitar. The resulting album, Ladies Love Oracle (2003 Rounder) was an intimate and powerful collection of midnight confessionals his Grant Lee Buffalo material had only hinted at. Exclusively available through his website, the album scored a small cult of LA-based fans, most being recent converts to Phillips brand of macabre pop after attending his numerous solo shows at the prestigious club Largo in Hollywood. Utilizing loops, subtle electronic effects, and a multitude of pop hooks Mobilize (2001 Zoe/Rounder) was essentially the antithesis of Ladies Love Oracle. After catching the ear of television producer Amy Sherman-Palladino, Phillips earned a recurring role on the dramady Gilmore Girls, playing the local troubadour for the fictional town of Stars Hollow. By this time Phillips had signed to Rounder Records who re-released Ladies Love Oracle internationally.
Virginia Creeper (2004 Rounder) mined a gossamer alt-country vein with aplomb, but the album lacked the pop sensibilities his fans had come to expect. Nineteeneighties (2006 Rounder) found Phillips going back to his stark acoustic roots with hauntingly gorgeous renditions of classic 1980’s alternative rock hits by New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Psychedelic Furs among others. Packed with dramatic orchestration, the innovation of early alternative rock, and a rejuvenated knack for pristine pop hooks, Strangelet (2007 Rounder) is the most ambitious solo effort of Phillips career thus far and garnered heaps of critical praise for a songwriter still at the top of his game after twenty years in the business.
