By Stephanie Danis
Arts Staff, ‘11

Theodore Grimm

Good time boys Theodore Grimm describe themselves as a band that eats White Castle for breakfast and enjoys “knitting” for fun. Their pumped up version of garage rock manifests itself in the 70’s styling of their tour van and in the fervor of the movements they elicit fromtheir dedicated fans on the dance floor.

They vary their form from melodic repetitive riffs to unanticipated blasts of sporadic guitar screeching and screamo vocals. Their 2005 song “Father of the Modern Tornado” is a kinked up dance version of an ode to surf rock. In “Fall up Float Down,” vocalist David instructs, “Teach yourself to romance because it’s cold where your heart is.” This neatly packed poetic love lyric compliments the syncopated drumming on the song; the two go together like the river and the riverbank. Their new songs, such as newly recorded “Coma Politik,” are packed with sexy teen spirited one-liners like, “We like it dirty” that make all those crazy teens want to dance out their frustrations. Theodore Grimm’s music is lyrically sappy enough to be for girls, but the instrumentation and the changeups are fit to suit the typical fist thrashing punk guy.

The band emphasizes its connection with art beyond the music. As the drummer Brian, (stage name Chucky) says,” I think our band is very artistic and the way we dress, the way we act, the way we live-our vehicle-all those things come together.” That drive to express themselves is what has kept this band playing in Brooklyn bars and NJ rock venues for five years. The band formed in Nutley, NJ in 2003 and has since been taking 2008 by storm as a four-piece electric rock group.
For fans interested in getting some of their merchandise, Theodore Grimm members are silk-screening the Theodore Grimm logo on to t-shirts that fans are urged to send to an address advertised on their MySpace page. If you want to know more about the band and hear some of their tunes, check out their MySpace at www.myspace.com/theodoregrimm.