Music
by D. Patrick Rodgers
MOVE EVERY MUSCLE, MAKE EVERY SOUND
De Novo Dahl (Roadrunner)
Playing Tuesday, 25th at Grimey’s at 6 p.m.
If you live within cultural earshot of Music City, chances are you’re familiar with the buzz surrounding local indie popsters De Novo Dahl. DND’s ambitious 2005 double-disc debut, Cats & Kittens, and their subsequent record deal with Roadrunner, a label better known for metal acts such as Slipknot and Nickelback, secured them a place on the short list of local acts to watch. But after a lineup change that left the band short three founding members and principal songwriters, the remaining Dahls had to contemplate whether staying together was even an option.
“We felt like we couldn’t just replace people and still focus on Cats & Kittens,” says amply bearded lead singer and guitarist Joel J. Dahl. “We had to move forward.”
And so they did: After shopping various Nashville musicians, the band finally landed on keyboardist Matt Hungate of Imagine Asians and bassist Keith Lowen of The Privates. With the band’s new lineup came a revamped sound, though DND was careful not to abandon the trademark pop sentimentality that made them popular in the first place, as evidenced on their follow-up EP, Shout.
The result of De Novo Dahl’s carefully retooled style is Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound, a major-label debut that demonstrates the band’s capacity for growth. While DND may have abandoned any semblance of the lo-fi charm and experimentation apparent on Cats & Kittens, Move Every Muscle displays the refined songwriting skills and knack for postproduction of a band ready for the national stage.
Four of the songs on Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound were mixed by Dave Fridmann, who not coincidentally is best known for his work with a much-touted influence of DND’s, The Flaming Lips. The remainder of the album was mixed by an associate of Fridmann’s, Tony Doogan, who is known for his work with UK acts Super Furry Animals, Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian. Move Every Muscle was tracked at Peter Groenwald’s now-defunct East Nashville studio The Oldest Bird, where the band invited friends to contribute to recording sessions that Dahl admits were “a bit like a party.”
Among the many voices providing a wall of sound on the album are those of Amanda Crawford (Love Society) and Jeff Carney (Imagine Asians). Former De Novo Dahl keyboardists Mark Bond (now manning keys for The Features) and Arlo Hall (who went on to form the Hannah Barbarians with Dahl’s younger brother) also contributed. Matt Slocum, formerly of Sixpence None the Richer, provided auxiliary instrumentation.
Move Every Muscle opens with the boisterous and anthemic “Shout,” which fans will recognize as the album’s first single. The dangerously contagious gang vocals found on “Shout” set the pace for the album’s 13 brief and explosive tracks, most of which are peppered with ’80s-inspired walls of synthesizer and Polyphonic glee.
While Cats & Kittens certainly wasn’t short on energy, Move Every Muscle is more consistently up-tempo, rarely deviating from a vaguely Britpop mentality that combines wandering verses with surging, bass-driven choruses.
Due to the parting of principal vocalists Mark Bond and Derek Sandidge, De Novo Dahl shifted some of the singing responsibility to Omnichord player Serai Zaffiro. Zaffiro’s subtle and delicate vocals shadow Dahl’s on songs like “New Hero,” but Dahl’s voice still manages to steal the show. His playfully catchy and polished vocal melodies, which showcase his range and emotive flair, reveal more than just a hint of glam influence.
While Dahl cops to drawing inspiration from requisite rock acts like T. Rex, the Kinks, Bowie and the Stones, he also cites heavy influence from ’70s funk virtuoso Shuggie Otis. Dahl and company incorporated their passion for funk and hip-hop into the writing process, sampling R&B and soul hooks in demo sessions that drummer Joey Andrews (a.k.a. Mixta Huxtable) later morphed into slick breakbeats.
“We spent a lot of time figuring out what it was like to write a chord progression and melody around a groove,” says Dahl. This backdoor approach to song construction is especially apparent in tracks like “Shakedown,” in which Dahl’s vocals and guitar seem to have been written in response to the pocket created by Lowen and Andrews. Nashville’s own DJ Kidsmeal further contributed to the funk with scratching and samples on “Shakedown” as well as “Been Kept Up” and “Wishful Thinking.”
De Novo Dahl’s kitchen-sink approach to writing and recording works. Move Every Muscle exudes the essence of pop without venturing too far into the realm of saccharine radio hits. Not that the record lacks commercial appeal—“Be Your Man” sounds as though it bounced straight out of an iPod ad.
But Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound is not all sweetness and light. Much of the album contains a discernable air of aggression and attitude, likely inspired by the difficulties DND has faced over the past few years. “Sky is Falling” seems to be a testament to those obstacles. “This is such a complicated situation / and we really need everyone’s participation,” Dahl sings. “I just want to scream out loud / There’s got to be a new way out / instead of digging our own graves.”
Move Every Muscle concludes with the poignantly epic “Not to Escape,” which Dahl admits was inspired by and written about the death of a friend and former bandmate, Rich Toomey, nearly a decade ago. The song is sprawling and ethereal, flanked with strings and pedal steel that swell to a grandiose pinnacle at the song’s fruition.
“It’s not an accident that the record is named Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound,” says Dahl. “We really just went at it with kind of a wild abandon.”And that wild abandon resulted in an album that is best described as carefully orchestrated chaos. Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound marries glam rock, funk, hip-hop, keyboard-driven pop and that difficult-to-define Nashville sound that Dahl confesses he, as a native son, “couldn’t help but absorb.” Now awaiting the March 25 national release of Move Every Muscle, De Novo Dahl is poised to bring their earnest brand of up-tempo pop to the masses, and not a moment too soon.