Classic Music Moment: DFA 1979 on Conan O’ Brien’s Late Show
I remember watching this air originally sometime around ‘04-‘05. I knew of the band but wasn’t really crazy about them - I think they were still called just Death From Above at the time (they would later have to add-in the 1979 to avoid confusion with the record label, and it was often abbreviated as DFA 1979). Then I saw this performance which really invigorated me. The part with Max coming in really made it awesome, in fact I have been mentioning it to people ever since but few seem to have actually seen it.
Looking at it now it wasn’t quite as thrilling as I remembered - but that isn’t to say its not great. I still really love this clip, and I think what is hard to see was just how ahead of the curve these guys were. It wasn’t that long ago, but the indie-band landscape was quite different from what we have today. There weren’t a whole lot of 2-piece “bands” or even “dj-bands” or anything like what you see today. There was the White Stripes and that was about it, and these guys were as far from the white stripes as you could get - they’re almost the polar opposite, but they share the “indie” aesthetic and therefore seem much more similar.
Anyhow, while dfa 1979 were off to a great start they burned out prematurely and never fully blossomed - I think they could have gone really far had they kept at it. I never really got into them but I feel like I should really check their stuff out again. Just because I wasn’t crazy about it then doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be exactly what I’m looking for now.
as for the two guys from the band, the bass player Jesse is now one half of the DJ-outfit MSTRKRFT. the other guy is also still a musician. there really isn’t a big back story to their break-up, they claim it was just artistic differences which makes sense if you look at the music each guy is making now. I’m sure there’ll be a reunion at some point.
