Matthew Kelly (The Autumns)

Matthew Kelly (The Autumns)
Matthew Kelly, Paris 2009
Background information
Genres	Rock
Associated acts	The Autumns, The Sound of Animals Fighting, Pyramids, Soviet League, Minus Music

Matthew Kraig Kelly is a singer, guitarist, songwriter, and historian.

Kelly is best known for his work with the influential LA noise-rock band The Autumns, which he fronted for more than a decade (1997–2008).

He is also a member of the experimental post-punk collective The Sound of Animals Fighting, and the black-metal-inspired Pyramids.

In addition to his musical output, Kelly is a historian of the modern Middle East. He holds a PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), has published several articles in professional journals, and is the author of a forthcoming book with the University of California Press.

Kelly currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, the dancer and choreographer Tammie Rose Johnston. They have one son.

The Autumns' career began in 1997, when the band released the EP Suicide at Strell Park and, shortly thereafter, the LP The Angel Pool. Both records garnered a good deal of critical acclaim, especially The Angel Pool. Flipside called it a "hypnotic pop masterpiece." All Music Guide deemed it a "fine debut" that featured "an alluring mix of power and beauty."

Word of the LP soon spread to Europe, where it caught the ear of Simon Raymonde, whose band Cocteau Twins was among The Autumns’ primary influences.

In 2000, Raymonde produced The Autumns’ second album, In the Russet Gold of this Vain Hour. He went on to release the band's third and fourth albums––The Autumns (2004) and Fake Noise from a Box of Toys (2008)––on his prestigious London-based recording label, Bella Union. The self-titled album was a hit with the British press. It won four-star reviews in MOJO, NME, The Times of London, and other high-profile outlets. Critics were more ambivalent about Fake Noise. NME memorably wrote that it sounded like "Sigur Ros getting hurt in a free jazz boot camp." FILTER took a different view, declaring that Fake Noise proved The Autumns were "everything that other bands wish they were."