Punk band Death From Above 1979 returns to life — for now

As duos go, Death From Above 1979’s Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler are a textbook odd couple. Both six feet tall, Grainger affects a fast-talking wryness, while Keeler cuts a brooding figure, frequently hiding his face under swooping jet-black hair. Together they created some of the most indelible, dark and propulsive music to ever come out of Canada — and then they stopped speaking to each other for five years. Last fall, they released their first album in a decade, The Physical World.

Keeler attempts to explain why the duo broke up shortly after the release of their well-received 2004 debut, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine.

“The shortest answer is that it stopped being fun,” the bassist says. “We have no official statements, really,” Grainger adds with a sly grin. “But there is a movie coming.”

Details are sketchy, but if reports are to be believed, Grainger and Keeler formed Death From Above in 2000. The duo quickly gained a reputation around Toronto’s punk scene for their insane work ethic and unorthodox instrumentation: bass and drums, with drummer Grainger handling vocals. “They really would play anywhere,” says Eric Warner, who booked DFA in those early days. “Dive bars (that) are now swanky restaurants, community centres ...”

In 2004, budding label Last Gang Records signed the group in Canada But in 2005 the duo secretly broke up. Then, in 2010, Grainger approached Keeler to reunite. But it would be four years before any new music. Keeler explains the delay: “You can only play reunion shows for so long,” he says. “But it’s very fun to work in the confines of an idea.”

The Physical World picks up where the group left off: gut-punching, angular riffs atop thunderous drumming, topped with Grainger’s melodic screaming.

The Physical World is available on Last Gang records. For more information and tour dates, visit deathfromabove1979.com.