"It's a nod to some of the songs and people that made a lasting impact on my own songwriting and musicianship," says Phillips. "It's my personal mix tape, just as it's reeled around in my head for decades." While their influences are often sited today, you would be hard pressed to find most of these bands on the Billboard charts of the 1980s. There was an alternative, parallel universe, existing just below the conservative, pastel surface of all the hits of that era. It was that same unstoppable energy that would come to erupt in the form of Nirvana in the early '90s. Hushed and evocative, "nineteeneightees" was performed and recorded almost entirely by Phillips alone and it uncovers new dimensions in old favorites of real alternative music.

One of the most accomplished songwriters of his generation, Grant-Lee Phillips matches poetic introspection with a visceral undercurrent of uncertainty and wonder. After leading the acclaimed group Grant Lee Buffalo, Phillips released three solo albums for Zoe/Rounder which captured the range and depth of his abilities: Ladies Love Oracle, Mobilize and Virginia Creeper. Described as having "a rare gift of empathy" by Entertainment Weekly, and celebrated by Dallas Morning News as "one of the most dramatic balladeers in rock," Phillips is also known as the “Stars Hollow Town Troubadour” on the hit TV series, Gilmore Girls.