Send "Grampall Jookabox " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Allmusic |
 The term "melting pot" has been used to describe the United States of America's citizens since the country's inception, so it comes as no surprise that those citizens should produce art that's equally "stew-like." David Adamson (aka Grampall Jookabox), not content with the usual lo-fi, art-folk templates of 21st century home recording, has unleashed a truly genre-defying beast with Ropechain, the Indiana native's first full-length for the Asthmatic Kitty label. Adamson's heady blend of Odelay-era Beck, Roky Erickson paranoia, cosmic hip-hop, and general Animal Collective weirdness sounds like a train wreck in print, but his knack for odd melodies, stealthy programming, timely pitch-shifting, and macabre (and occasionally hysterical) subject matter helps to keep things consistently interesting throughout Ropechain's easily digestible 45-minute runtime. Highlights like "Black Girls,""Ghost," "We Know We Might Be Fucked," and "I Will Save Young Michael" -- the young Michael in question is indeed a Jackson -- conjure up the image of a reclusive parapsychologist pawing at the walls for a light switch in the basement and coming up empty every time. It's both harrowing and funny, and it's a notion that a lot of long-winded, self-serving, home recording indie artists would do well to emulate....full text |
| Adequacy |
| Following in the footsteps of his solid debut from last year, Scientific Cricket, Grampall Jookabox returns with a nice follow-up. And although last year’s album was painted with “folksy” roots filled with airy guitars and almost transparent drums, David Adamson hasn’t lost any of his ironically funny and comical lyrics. Ropechain finds Adamson and co. embracing their lower end to the fullest extent. Where his last album found him taking on lo-fi and airy production, here, the drums thump and beat with a loud ferocity. This is merely highlighted with Adamson’s forceful vocals and backdrop synths. “Let’s Go Mad Together” is a fine example of this as Adamson chants and sings in an almost frenetic, Byrne-like cadence, while tribal drums and eerie atmospherics lend their hand to the song’s bouncy feel. And even though the production isn’t exactly polished or shiny, it certainly breathes of a certain clarity and thus, richer quality. But still, Adamson has always been about his playful lyrics and that doesn’t change one bit on Ropechain. Previously featured on an EP, “The Girl Ain’t Preggers” touches on that feeling of relief but yet, disappointment that arises when dealing with an unwanted pregnancy. Adamson reveals his inner falsetto and although the music rustles with crisp drums and a catchy idea, the lyrics aim at jokingly detailing a serious manner. This suits Adamson well because he can show off his earnest demeanor whiles still maintaining his oddball personality....full text |
| Tinymixtapes |
| For many of the bands with whom Grampall Jookabox is likely to be compared, sonic experimentation is as much artifice as art, a mask to hide largely empty songs behind. It makes for easy infatuation, but tends to offer diminishing returns as the layers of sound are peeled back to reveal a vacuous core of meaningless gibberish. What places Ropechain, Grampall’s second release for Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label, above its emotionally vacant peers is a willingness to trade drugged-out euphoric rambling with tangible anxiety. The album rides its paranoia into absurdist tomes on life’s biggest questions: God, love, birth, death, madness, and Michael Jackson. “Strike Me Down” addresses man’s relation to God in a fearful, nervous lament. Repetition plays an important role here, like a crazed rambling. Dave Adamson, Grampall’s singular figure, croons, “Oh, God is comin’ back/ He spoke to me” over and over again in a brittle falsetto, breaking only to exclaim, “Strike me down/ Strike me down.” Backwards tape loops and disembodied voices swirl around Adamson’s anxious, solitary speaker as drums clatter out a repetitive stomp. “I Will Save Young Michael” and “I’m Absolutely Freaked Out” both pose the King of Pop as a vehicle for exploring mental instability....full text |
Grampall Jookabox lyrics
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