Grand Champeen
The One That Brought You (Glurp!) The sound of a band hitting its stride is always a beautiful thing. On their third album, local quartet Grand Champeen comes roaring out of the gate with the vein-pounding “The Good Slot” and doesn’t look back until the final squeals of “Fakin’ It” have evaporated into the cool night air. Three songwriters are two too many for most groups, but not here: singer Channing Lewis’ madcap dispatches from the rock & roll front (“That’s Never Why,” “No Hope”); bassist Alex Livingstone’s forays into reflective power-pop (“Paid Vacation”); and guitarist Michael Crow, splitting the difference on the Beatlesque “Bottle Glass.” Grand Champeen is still the same act found on its first two LPs, the same Soul Asylum/Big Star-loving kids whose amps go to 11 and are prone to the occasional romantic gaffe (as are we all). The difference here is instead of being enthralled by their influences, they’ve transcended them. They’ve been around the block and in the van long enough now for plenty of scars on their gear cases and livers, yet they haven’t lost that crucial spit-in-your-eye spark of youth. The One That Brought You rocks with assurance, experience, and true grit.
This article appears in October 10 • 2003.