Breaking Artist: Grand National
Who: Lawrence “La” Rudd and Rupert Lyddon, a pair of witty English dance-music enthusiasts with no particular fondness for horses — they had planned to name themselves after the pony that won a major horse race, wound up taking the name of the competition itself to save time, and have been plagued with horse-related questions from interviewers ever since.
Sounds Like: Dancey electro-rock that bounces along to soulful, Eighties-tinged grooves and clubby synths but never loses the “rock” side of the equation. The group’s second album A Drink and a Quick Decision, like their debut Kicking the National Habit pulls from influences that range from Depeche Mode to Hall and Oates.
Three Things You Should Know:
1. When Lyddon used to deliver sausages for a living, he scored studio time in the band’s early days by making a deal with Primal Scream — he’d hand over as many sausages as they desired, and the band let him borrow the keys to the studio.
2. Rudd used to perform in a Police cover band when he was a teenager.
3. Lyddon has a unique way of keeping snoopers out of the group’s studio space: he urinates in bottles so he doesn’t have to get up and break his concentration.
Get It: Grand National’s second album A Drink and a Quick Decision is available now on Recall Records.