Death from Above 1979 made an immediate splash upon debuting in 2004 with You're a Woman, I'm a Machine. Bassist/synth player Jesse F. Keeler and drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger hail from Toronto, where they met and formed Death from Above in 2001. (The "1979" was added later, after a spat with U.S.-based music collective DFA.) Without a guitarist -- or any other bandmember, for that matter -- Keeler and Grainger were free to push their rhythmic sound as far as it would go, and they eventually arrived at a severely overdriven rush of punk, hip-hop, and dance music influences held together with high volume. After a few initial singles, Death from Above 1979 made their 2004 LP debut and never looked back, hooking onto high-profile tours with Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age and generally making a sweaty racket wherever they went. Romance Bloody Romance, a collection of You're a Woman remixes, appeared in October 2005 before the duo officially announced their disbandment the following August, as they had apparently grown too far apart from one another to go on as a band. Keeler went on to work with producer Al-P in MSTRKRFT. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide see full bio >>

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