I first came upon the music of Darwin Deez by an, admittedly, slightly annoying song called “Radar Detector” that got a lot of airplay on BBC Radio in 2010. Darwin Deez, aka Darwin Smith, is one unusual character. A pretty talented guy, Smith wrote, performed, produced, arranged, engineered and mixed almost everything on this debut album. I guess he must just be mildly OCD about controlling his musical output, which is not all that uncommon among musicians. His guitar is definitely strange though: his axe only has 4 strings (no E string) and he has a secret tuning key for it. Okay…
Now I mentioned BBC Radio because Britain, better than any other country, has the ear to pick on a good thing and can do this much faster than America can. And indeed, they’ve already embraced his misfit pop stylings. Widely read British music magazine NME featured Deez as part of the top ten of the NME Cool List 2010, alongside ex-Libertine Carl Barat, Janelle Monae, and Laura Marling, just to name three others. NME describes Deez, in at #10, as follows: “All the Richard Dawkins acolytes who drone on about how all religion is benighted, all bollocks and basically pure evil, need a few elementary lessons in Darwin-ism. Darwin Deez is indie’s exemplar of all that’s positive of living according to your holy principles. His lifelong devotion to the teachings of Indian mystic Meher Baba seems to have gifted him with the warm, graceful, joss-stick hazy spiritual air…” Pretty heady stuff for a kid born under such spiritual confines who eventually gave up schooling at Wesleyan to entertain anti-folk lovers in New York City and now regularly sells out UK venues. Definitely a case of living the dream.
So far, “Radar Detector,” “Constellations,” and “Up in the Clouds” (an addictive, peppy, and cute apology / love song) have been released as singles in the UK, but in my view, the better tracks are still to be discovered when you buy Darwin Deez the album. If you don’t like programmed beats or deadpanned, nonmelodic singing, this is probably not the record for you. “Deep Sea Diver” is not about water sports, it’s Deez singing to his girlfriend, stop being depressed because “now you’re bringing me down, now I’m unhappy too.” A fun groove punctuates “The City.” Later on, “The Suicide Song” sounds far too happy as a real call for help. “Bed Space,” with its trippy dream like quality, lacks direction. “The Bomb Song” is trying to be a commentary on the end of the world by weapons of mass destruction, and it doesn’t fit on this otherwise happy album, it’s just too heavy subject matter.
The surprising gem in the bunch is the last track, “Bad Day.” This is not to be confused with “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter, the cloyingly sweet and empathetic song that we heard play every time another reject was booted, blinking back tears, from American Idol a couple years back. No, this is reined-in vitriol from one dude to another, served up Darwin Deez style. You have to laugh at the lyrics: “I hope the last page of your 800 page novel is missing / I hope that it rains if you leave the window down on your red Mustang” and “I would like to be your girlfriend so I could dump you / and I would like to be your garbage man / so I would never have to pick up your trash again”. Brilliant. It’s the kind of anthem you want to sing in the face of anyone who’s ever wronged you. In a sunny, not argumentative Darwin Deez way, and afterwards, you can skip off, happily, into the sunset.
Darwin Deez will be released on February 22 on Lucky Number Records.
Track Listing:
01. Constellations
02. Deep Sea Divers
03. The City
04. DNA
05. The Suicide Song
06. Up in the Clouds
07. Bed Space
08. The Bomb Song
09. Radar Detector
10. Bad Day
Tour Dates
Feb 09 – Spring Street Firehouse / Birmingham
Feb 10 – Club Downunder / Tallahassee
Feb 11 – Drunken Unicorn / Atlanta
Feb 12 – Snug Harbor / Charlotte
Feb 14 – Local 506 / Chapel Hill
Feb 15 – Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar / Charlottesville, VA
Feb 17 – Black Cat Backstage / Washington, DC
Feb 18 – Kung Fu Necktie / Philadelphia
Feb 19 – Bowery Ballroom / New York City
Darwin Deez: website | myspace | Darwin Deez to Tour North America This Winter, Will Release Self-Titled Debut in February
