James Brooks previously released music as Elite Gymnastics, but that project is now apparently defunct, and he has announced plans to release music under the moniker Dead Girlfriends. His debut EP under the new name, Stop Pretending, is available now.
Brooks wrote on Elite Gymnastics' Facebook page, "Elite Gymnastics is technically a defunct project." As for the grim new pseudonym — which is also the name of Brooks's Tumblr — a blog post indicates that it is inspired by a speech by feminist Andrea Dworkin.
He wrote, "It has been the name of this Tumblr since 2010, and this Tumblr always felt like an outlet that was wholly mine and a safe place to just kind of talk about personal stuff and be myself and the art that I make now is kind of an extension of that so it feels like a name I feel comfortable putting on stuff."
Stream the Stop Pretending EP in full below, along with a simple video for the noisy song "On Fraternity."
The EP cover artwork was created by Grimes songwriter Claire Boucher. A note on Bandcamp explains, "Claire did the drawing on the front cover and she wants me to make sure to tell you that her original drawing is much better than it appears to be on the cover because I drew over a photo of it and made it look squiggly."
Stop Pretending:
1. Words with Friends
2. Omertà
3. Stop Pretending
4. On Fraternity
Brooks wrote on Elite Gymnastics' Facebook page, "Elite Gymnastics is technically a defunct project." As for the grim new pseudonym — which is also the name of Brooks's Tumblr — a blog post indicates that it is inspired by a speech by feminist Andrea Dworkin.
He wrote, "It has been the name of this Tumblr since 2010, and this Tumblr always felt like an outlet that was wholly mine and a safe place to just kind of talk about personal stuff and be myself and the art that I make now is kind of an extension of that so it feels like a name I feel comfortable putting on stuff."
Stream the Stop Pretending EP in full below, along with a simple video for the noisy song "On Fraternity."
The EP cover artwork was created by Grimes songwriter Claire Boucher. A note on Bandcamp explains, "Claire did the drawing on the front cover and she wants me to make sure to tell you that her original drawing is much better than it appears to be on the cover because I drew over a photo of it and made it look squiggly."
Stop Pretending:
1. Words with Friends
2. Omertà
3. Stop Pretending
4. On Fraternity