Grand Mal “Love is the Best Game in Town” CD
After the 1995 dissolution of Hartford, CT’s mess-rock poster children St. Johnny, who Sonic Youth signed to Geffen in 1992, bandleader Bill Whitten, with only an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. copy and a notebook full of rough edged hits to his name, found himself in New York. Informed by New York Dolls, T-Rex, and Mott the Hoople instead of his previously slack, droning St. Johnny work, Whitten introduced Grand Mal later that year. Whitten has spent the last decade since writing brilliant off-kilter rock’n’roll gems about first round K.O.’s. bail-jumping ex-wives, disaster films, mustachioed fascists and endless misadventures. Continuing work with St. Johnny producer Dave Fridmann, including studio appearances by friends like the Flaming Lips Stephen Drozd and Mercury Rev’s Grasshopper, Grand Mal released a slew of albums on Number 6, Slash/London, and Arena Rock before calling it quits after 2003’s critically acclaimed Bad Timing. Whitten quietly returned to home recording, and, out of nowhere, delivered his most realized, relaxed album to date: Love Is The Best Con In Town. More »
