Dayeater – Love W/ You
Mindy McCall
Posted On September 3, 2018
Dayeater – Love W/ You
URL: http://www.dayeaterband.com/
The retro quasi-punk sound of Austin, Texas’ Dayeater reaches an early apex with their new single “Love W/ You”, an immensely catchy six string workout adept at flexing its muscle without ever losing its rambunctious edge. Much of that edge is reflected in the song’s freewheeling, slightly raucous vocals – there’s never any sense of the proceedings careening off the rails, but the mere suggestion they might brings a combustible air to the fore that makes this all the more delicious of a performance. The Lone Star State based three piece first emerged with their 2016 release Voices Out of Nowhere and their continued success, both artistically and commercially, is virtually assured with the track “Love W/You”. It’s rock that honors the past while casting a wide eye and open ear towards the future.
The unmistakable guitar crunch powering “Love W/ You” introduces itself early on and never backs off. There’s an ear-catching presentation, however, defining both the instrumental and vocal presentation alike presenting the song n intensely physical terms from the first but, likewise, demonstrating perhaps surprising musicality. The production frames “Love W/ You” in the best possible way with warm sonic investing both the singing and instrumental performance without ever making either component sound too stagy.
The drumming is definitely a high point of the performance. The aforementioned production strengths are especially in evidence with this part recording as the production amplifies in equal measure both the swagger and power behind the song’s percussion. It’s a song never sounding, even for a second, self-consciously “rock” – instead, this is a very natural outing for Dayeater and “Love W/ You” easily sounds like the possible product of a particularly inspired jam session.
The band is often compared to a mix of MC5 and Blue Cheer adopted by the 13th Floor Elevators, but such comparisons are ultimately pointless. The reason why is that Dayeater are clearly their own band from the first and the shared frame of reference they have with similarly themed outfits is filtered through their own experience rather than merely regurgitated for a modern audience. They successfully carve themselves out a musical niche that will be difficult to dislodge them from in coming years. “Love W/ You” is a clear illustration of the band’s skill with pouring old wine into new bottles.
If we can interpret this new single as a sign of where the band’s sound and work is going from here, we’re in good hands. Dayeater can certainly bear some of the aforementioned comparison, but we are lucky our discussion of the band doesn’t end there. This is an irrepressible three piece; their creativity is brimming over from the first and “Love W/ You” is obviously a sign of their gathering artistic strength. Austin, Texas has produced many fine acts over the last quarter century and Dayeater are totally ready to claim a place among their company. They bring a high level of intelligence and a delightfully skewed sense of humor to a musical form that, all too easily, lapses into the predictability and this characteristic alone, if no other, helps Dayeater stand out for a modern music fan.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/dayeaterband?fref=ts
Mindy McCall
