THE
DEATHRAY DAVIES
The Kick And The Snare
“No information can be given about the Deathray Davies – listen to the music and decide for
yourselves.”
So
said the note that John Dufilho attached to a cassette of solo recordings he
speculatively submitted to the South By SouthWest music conference in
1999. “I just didn’t have a band and was
trying to cover that up,” Dufilho recalls.
“I was shocked to hear that ‘the Deathray Davies’ had been accepted and
had to put a band together quickly, so I stole friends away from other bands.”
The SXSW show was a success and the Deathray Davies
gradually shifted from side-project to front-and-center, from casual collective
to tight touring act. Instantly embraced
in their native
So the Deathray Davies are perfectly poised for the
release of The Kick And The Snare (due
in May ’05), an album so drenched in pop intuition and savvy arrangements that,
if only radio still played rock ‘n roll, it could be a generation soundtrack.
The Deathrays absorb influences from the ‘British
invasion’ staples the Beatles, the Kinks and the Zombies, to Bob Dylan and the
Beach Boys, to the Ramones and the Replacements. They’re about songs, songs and more songs,
Dulfilho’s oft-understated expressions blooming within charmingly eccentric
arrangements and bouncing progressions mottled with showers of guitar and keys.
The Kick And The
Snare underlines
the DRD’s ability to sound at once wistful and optimistic, delicate and
driving. “Release The Squid” sets an
insistent guitar refrain and tom-propelled groove against Dulfilho’s plaintive
verse melody, before the beat straightens out into a harmony-heavy chorus
cooled with late-‘60s breeze. “Plan To
Stay Awake” turns a frantically taught, almost new-wave verse (not to mention
record-breaking wordiness) into a panoramic hook. “They Stuck Me In A Box In The Ground (Part 7)” - an on-going epic throughout DRD recordings
- juxtaposes a Casio groove and contemplative vocal with loitering, textured
guitar and noodling keys. It’s the DRD
at their kaleidoscopic best, slipping 3D spex onto Dulfilho’s succinct
songwriting template.
Lyrically, Dulfilho trimmed the fat: “This album’s more to
the point. Death seems to
come up quite a bit, but more for the purposes of
remembering that we’re not around for long and to make the most of it.”
“The songwriting is not as dark or moody as the last
album,” adds Garner. “We made more of a
conscious effort towards simplistic melody, with counter-melody on top of it,
and simple riffs.”
Whereas previous DRD albums found Dulfilho and Garner
playing most of the instruments, The Kick
And The Snare features the full live line-up. “Some of the songs are quite layered, with
horns and such,” explains Garner.
The Deathray live experience puts an energized, slightly
psychedelic spin on their studio proclamations: the stage aglow with rope
lights; flailing locks and frenetic delivery; the crazy-haired Kevin Ingle
cheerleading with eyes-clenched abandon.
Furiously prolific – five albums, one single, countless
compilations and 500 shows in 5 years – the Deathray Davies have built the
credibility and fan-base to launch The
Kick And The Snare into mainstream orbit.
Hopes? “That people
will love it, buy it, and buy it for their friends,” mulls Dufilho.
And fears? “No
thank you – we’re a rock ‘n roll band”.
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