The beards are back in town - yes, after a three-year layoff, the heroically hirsute Grandaddy have chosen this invite-only shindig to launch their UK comeback. The anticipation of hearing material from the band's forthcoming 'Sumday' LP has drawn the faithful out, hoping the churning emotional core at the heart of 2000's marvellous 'The Sophtware Slump' is still intact. However, 'Daddy frontman Jason Lytle admits they haven't had enough time to rehearse many new songs, so we're treated to just two. Oh, the tease.
As it happens, they're inspired choices. The first single 'Now It's On' careers along on a tune as gloriously upbeat as an episode of Sesame Street, while 'Yeah Is What We Had' is so heartbreakingly beautiful it'd make a pitbull well up.
So no radical new podium-dancing electroclash direction, then, but when Grandaddy crash through back catalogue classics like 'AM 180' this isn't a bad thing. With the follicly-enhanced likes of Kings Of Leon and The Warlocks in vogue, it's good to have Grandaddy back to ensure things stay really hairy.
Alan Woodhouse
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