The Fall “Grotesque (After the Gramme)” 1980. Yesterday, March 5th, was The Fall’s singer/frontman Mark Smith’s 60th birthday (b. 1957). Smith has been the only consistent member of the enduring, crazy-prolific post-punk band which released 30 studio albums between 1979 and 2015, plus 32 (!!) live albums and 5 mixed studio/live offerings. Grotesque (After the Gramme) is The Fall’s third studio LP. It is raw and experimental with a crisp, metallic sound. Smith’s singing style is “snarling, nearly incomprehensible vocals and consuming, bitter cynicism.” Songs veer from rockabilly à la Hasil Adkins (“The Container Drivers”) to sparse anarchic punk-poetry (“C’n’C-S Mithering”) to groovin’ Velvet Underground-esque sax-laden epics (“The New Face in Hell”). Through it all, Smith has a lot to say, mostly with wit tinged in acid (the last line of the liner notes on the LP say “SMASH before lazy brains take over spewing out puny past echoes. Bah!”)