Love Life formed their unholy alliance in 1999 when long-time lovers cum bandmates, Katrina Ford and Sean Antanaitis
(Jaks, Celebration) joined with bassist Anthony Malat
(UOA, Great Unraveling, Bellmer Dolls), and drummer David Bergander
(Arbouretum, Celebration). Ford and Antanaitis left their homebase of Ann Arbor and their amazing band
Jaks behind, eventually making their way out to Baltimore. They all moved in communally and formed a sound organic to that confluence. Practicing for several months before playing out, they developed, in the process, an amazingly insular performance aesthetic. They often played on the floor, lit incense and a hundred some-odd white candles. Ford's ferocious voice and her commanding stage presence pushed Love Life into the realm of spiritual experience.
Antanaitis plays an angular, woozy
guitorgan (an electric guitar with the organ built into the frets!) with a style all his own and Malat, at his dirgy best, serves as the pummeling groove behind Katrina Ford's androgynous wailing. I'd be remiss not to mention the advise found in the liner notes to both albums-- "
We recommend listening to this recording on headphones."
Love Life
• After releasing their debut, The Rose He Lied By (2000), the band toured extensively, released a 7", then their final album, Here Is Night, Brothers, Here the Birds Burn (2002) on Jagjaguwar before they called it quits.
• Thanks to My Tape Up In Here for the beautiful rip of the Hex It Out heart-shaped 7" (or is it a 10"?).
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