One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This Ain't Your Mama's Grindcore Band — It's His
Canadian band The Grindmother is a family act, led by guitarist Rain Forest and his 67-year-old mom.
Listen
3:54
Listen to the Story
The Canadian band Grindmother last week released its debut album, Age of Destruction. The group gets its name in part from the style of music it plays, known for short songs with blistering tempos and heavy distortion.
"I would describe grindcore as kind of like a hybrid between punk and metal," says Rain Forest, the trio's gentle-voiced guitar player. "Just brutal and extreme."
More notable, though is the band's other namesake: its 67-year-old lead vocalist, Rain Forest's mother.
"One day she was over, we were just having a coffee," he says. "And I had the recording stuff set up for my own band, so I just said, 'You feel like going upstairs and trying a couple of screams?' And she said, 'Yeah, sure!'"
Mother and son both keep their real names private, but they're unreserved about the strange joy of working together. Hear more of their story, from impromptu experiment to viral phenomenon and beyond, at the audio link.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDA1OTI3MjQ5MDEyODUwMTE2MzM1YzNmZA004))
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
