Grant Hart - The Argument (2013, Domino Records) [Pop Concept Album About Paradise Lost]

been excited about this for awhile. heard some songs in rough form here and there, should be a good 'un, hoping it scales the heights of Good News For Modern Man after the somewhat slapdash last album

Press Release:

Domino are proud to announce that we will be releasing The Argument from Grant Hart on July 22nd, 2013.

As founder and half of the songwriting engine that drove the mighty Hüsker Dü to his maverick solo work, Grant Hart has cut a singular path across the last three decades of music. It is with great confidence that we say he has made an album to rival his greatest achievements. A double album based on John Milton's epic Paradise Lost, Hart distills its essence into pop and rock concoctions that nimbly flit through the history of 20th century music from Irving Berlin and David Bowie to... Hüsker Dü, even. Ambition is the topic and Hell is the location for this project that is ambitious as Hell. Does he pull it off? We say yes!

While visiting James Grauerholz, former friend and secretary for William S. Burroughs, James showed Grant an unpublished manuscript for Lost Paradise, William's science fiction story which portrays the fallen angels as men from distant planets and God as none other than fellow Missourian Harry S. Truman. James and Grant discussed adding music to William's story much in the same way that Tom Waits and William conspired to turn the German folk tale Die Freishutz into The Black Rider as staged by Robert Wilson.

From that point the seed had been planted, and the seed grew into the most beautiful tree in the garden of Grant's career. Domino invite you to taste the fruit of this tree. Go ahead, taste it.

Although lines from the poem are rarely quoted directly, all of the menace, pain and devotion of Milton's best loved work are here found. But where Milton's poem was "unadorned by rhyme,'' The Argument contain many complex couplets, especially the title track, in which not only the ends of lines rhyme, but the word that ends a phrase is the same as the first line of the phrase after it, all while conforming to the original ten syllable structure devised by Milton. Anyone who has ever had a conversation with Grant knows how patiently he chooses the words he uses.

As a double album of two halves, we wanted to show both the light and the dark of the album in its initial introduction, so we are offering two tracks for preview. "Is the Sky the Limit?" is a melancholy song of the aftermath of rejection built upon the eerie and lonely sound of Sputnik 1. To counterbalance this somber paean, "Letting Me Out" follows in all its propulsive Buddy Holly glory as the Artist formerly known as Lucifer offers up his cunning business proposition to populate the netherworld.

two songs on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/dominorecordco/sets/grant-hart-the-argument

Yeah, posted on the Hart V. Mould thread, these two songs are really good.

The Argument will be available on CD (WIGCD318), double vinyl (WIGLP318) and digitally (WIGDG318). And without further ado... the tracklist:

Out Of Chaos
Morningstar
Awake, Arise!
If We Have The Will
I Will Never See My Home
I Am Death
Sin
Letting Me Out
Is The Sky The Limit?
Golden Chain
So Far From Heaven
Shine, Shine, Shine
It Isn't Love
War In Heaven
Glorious
(It Was A) Most Disturbing Dream
Underneath The Apple Tree
The Argument
Run For The Wilderness
For Those Too High Aspiring

btw there is a rip of a 7 inch w/2 of these songs on Spotify that sounds like SHIT (morningstar & so far from heaven)...like really fucked up rip of vinyl so don't judge off that

So glad this is finally coming out! I think I broke the news of his signing to Domino in my interview with him late last year? Didn't find any other reference to it at the time but I may be wrong.

hmmm...ok so i have a song that was supposedly on this album, but i'm not seeing the title on the tracklisting...

i need to listen to this as soon as exam week is over!

GO AHEAD TASTE IT

forwarded this to my girlfriend, like me a massive Paradise Lost fan. Music reminded her of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5BJXwNeKsQ&feature=youtu.be

Actually, they're not musically similar at all, more of a thematic bond

OK, I've heard this, and it is sort of wonderfully weird, totally unpredictable and often awesome. It's like this strange, theatrical garage-rock opera. I could imagine Tom Waits singing some of the songs. It's also really long.

yeah grant's a fascinating dude

Pfft, bit sceptical - give me a 10 song solo classic please Grant.

i've heard about 8 songs and i wouldn't let the "concept" album scare you.....the songs themselves, at least what i've heard, are pretty classic type pop songs, it's not like it's a prog album, just a lot of songs i (assume) is what josh meant

Yeah, it's not some divided-into-suites sort of thing, just a whole lot of songs, some eccentric, many (most?) not really.

gonna tour i spose

Supposedly has a band for the first time in ages

He's touring Ireland again later this month and into June. No shows in Dublin and I can't make it out of the city to any of the other gigs this time round, but he's playing some lovely venues.

gonna be playing with a friends improv project on friday night opening for grant hart :)

excited! hope he plays a bunch of new stuff...apparently no band though

TURF CLUB PRESENTS:
GRANT HART | RANK STRANGERS | AMERICAN CREAM (Members of STNNNG)
Doors 9:00 PM | Main Stage

I'm excited for you! Looking forward to seeing him again soon, he's got a Dublin show lined up a few weeks from now.

that's awesome i'd imagine he'll have the band then

Totally forgot I had this album, need to listen again ASAP!

you have the whole thing???? damn

Listening now!

Wow, Grant could hang with Gira:

http://www.minnpost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_detail/images/articles/GrantHartMay2013_640.jpg

ha that's in the clown lounge at the turf club i think

He wants a hug in that pic. It's so obv!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jul/15/grant-hart-the-argument-album-stream

btw grant was totally great last weekend. he even played "The Main" for me when I shouted it out and moved his mic stand so he was singing right to me and my friend

that's wonderful!

i meant to post that guardian link a few days ago but i forgot and now i am finally listening to it. i like it so far! he's def still got it. does he ever play drums anymore?

ok this totally rules
"awake arise" is one of those insane army marching up a muddy mountain metal songs -- what a weird song to follow "morningstar" but I LOVE IT

also he is totally awesome

He also laid down a vision for how it might be best performed live: "What I would like to do is do it as a ballet; kind of like a perverted ballet where the band and the singers are accompanied by dancers on stage. I see some real inexpensive ways of staging certain things. I think it would be more than a string section but having five or six vocal sections would add more to it."

impt q: does anyone know if the LP will come with dl code?

i would think so? i think domino records do....i can ask my friend who has the record already

you never know these days, can't hurt to check!

confirmed that it does come w/download card :)

ok then sold!

ballet sounds like Kurious Oranj (the fall) or at least what I in my head like to think that was like

This is good! In the garage-psych vein he's been mining ever since HD, but with an added layer of musical-theater pizzazz. You have to buy into the premise, but he keeps it just glam enough to avoid embarrassment. Also, I never realized before what an influence Bowie was on him, but it totally makes sense.

I would definitely go see a full-scale production of this, not that I expect that to happen.

Ah, the Dublin show next month got cancelled. Hope it's just a matter of rescheduling for a future date, with the album getting good reviews in the UK mainstream press.

nice to see the reviews coming in very positive

http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-argument/grant-hart

http://www.nme.com/reviews/various-artists/14612

Dele Fadele's still at the NME? lol

Listening to this on Spotify. It's really, really, good. Grant sounds crazily like Ziggy-era Bowie on "Awake, Arise!"

mine is on its way! i felt really good about buying it.

Fun NPR interview from this past weekend:

http://www.npr.org/2013/07/21/203347286/h-sker-d-s-timekeeper-finds-a-lost-paradise

I'm looking forward to vinyl arriving today. Per interview above, I'm even more looking forward to a concept ballet with Courtney Love! (I think he's kidding)

just swung by Electric Fetus this morning and picked up the vinyl...very reasonable...$22 for a double LP, good quality sleeve nice packaging, vinyl looks good...downloading the MP3s now...

grant's picture on the back is great! so "1989" style clothes....what a good strong head of hair that man has

feel really happy for my friend mike who recorded this, he has a little studio in his basement for about 20 years now...great guy and rarely works on stuff this high profile...

man "shine, shine, shine" is just a gorgeous pop song

mike (who recorded it) said that grant was blowing his mind because he would get keyboard sounds EXACTLY like Intolerance stuff and it's, of course, because grant still has the exact same gear

So does anyone know who recorded this?

go fuck yourself

:(

Please don't get bummed out, either of you! AG was only teasing - probably because he's haunted by news of the Royal Baby.

hey AG sorry i'm a little salty IRL today

only grant could get the lyrics "A most imposing edifice - if we have the will" into a great pop hook

the more i listen to this, the more i like it!!
sure, it's a bit long and there are some songs i could prob live without but i admire the devotion to the concept more than i wish those songs weren't there.

hah, i was going to bump this as i'm listening now too.

it's weird and charming and a very individual vision. stylistically it's not completely my thing but i admire the hell out of it.

yeah there's a few that seem there for story development and stuff and you could probably make this a flawless single album but i'm glad he went for something of this scale and pulled it off and there aren't any really bad song IMO

I agree, I enjoy it in whole and in its parts. And somehow it hits the right tone for me of taking the project seriously but not coming off as pretentious or po-faced. I think my current favorite is "It Isn't Love" -- which doubles as a good old-fashioned "That man ain't no good for you" song.

Nice piece on Mike Wisti and Albatross here: http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2013/04/albatross_studio_mike_wisti_interview.php

Grant's doing an in-store at Treehouse Records Aug. 17, 4-6 p.m.!

listening now, liking this a lot.

In-store was truly great, right there with the 2541 and Zen Arcade posters. I wish I'd been recording all the patter, but most memorable for me was him covering "Data Control," by bizarre but wonderful request, and explaining it was originally a pun on Control Data.

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2013/11/the_grant_hart_documentary_every_everything.php

Rock N Jock Expo
Sunday, March 16th
New Hope Cinema Grill
2749 Winnetka Ave, New Hope, MN

Grant Hart special appearance and film screening

5:30 pm - screening of Every Everything
7:15 pm - Q&A with Grant
7:30 pm - Live performance

Meet & greet to follow the show

Tickets are $15 for the movie and live performance
Autographs or posed photos will be $5 (donation)
VIP passes available for additional $10 ($25 total) [preferred up front seating, autograph/posed photo, front of meet and greet line]

Tickets will soon be available at Treehouse , Roadrunner, and Fan HQ (Ridgedale Mall)

Grant Hart film/live show tickets are available for sale now...

http://www.RockNJockExpo.com

$15 for film and live show
$25 for VIP seating (film & show) + autograph or posed photo (VIP meet & greet line)

RIP Dude

i feel so sad about his passing. this album is excellent btw.