DEATH GRIPS // ROSELAND THEATER // JUNE 21ST

The first time someone told me I had “shit taste in music” was last summer, on a warm night in early July. Sitting on the grass, someone who had clearly lost all control of their life gave me auxiliary cord privileges. I decided to start things off with a banger, so, naturally, I played “No Love” from 2012’s No Love Deep Web. Before the song was over, one of the “friends” (I use this term loosely) I was with told me, “this is the worst music” he had ever heard and that I have “shit taste in music”. Fortunately for myself and for everyone else who likes “bad” music, Death Grips are performing a sold-out show at The Roseland Theater on June 21st.

Hailing from Sacramento, California, Death Grips are the sort of act that is nearly impossible to describe. I could throw out phrases like “experimental hip-hop”, “avant-garde”, or  even “punk as fuck” but I don’t think I know enough words from Webster’s Dictionary to succinctly represent Death Grips. To characterize the feeling when listening to Death Grips, maybe the best place to start is within MC Ride’s often surreal and always terrifying lyrics. “Don’t touch me/ What’s up wit it/ I stay noided stimulation overload account for it/ Desensitized by the mass amounts of shit” he violently yells on The Money Store stand-out track “I’ve Seen Footage”. Between the schizoid, glitchy production of Andy Morin and the destructive percussion of Zach Hill, Death Grips is desensitizing in the best possible way. If, by this point in the article, you are still unsure of what Death Grips are supposed to sound like, the name of the opening track on Jenny Death is an on-the-money imitation of their sound and overall aesthetic: “I Break Mirrors With My Face In The United States”.

During the summer of 2013, Death Grips booked a tour that they never planned on performing. Instead, each venue was given a large print-out of a suicide note written by a Death Grips fan to display, a children’s drum set, and an iPod playing tracks from their 2013 release Government Plates. Less than a year later, Death Grips called it quits, but not before announcing that their next album would still be released sometime in the future. In March of 2015, Jenny Death was finally released and packaged together with 2014’s Niggas on the Moon as the double album The Powers That B. Death Grips announced a North American tour soon after.

To prepare for their show, check out Grooves #6, an hour-long celebration of Death Grips.

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