Release Date: March 10th, 2012
My Dad is not another noisy/poppy/math rock band from Chicago, but one that has familial integrity. Sure, the album is layered with idiosyncratic lyrics and sardonic wit, but it’s not just another one of those typical albums that becomes ubiquitous as soon as it hits the shelves. This is a talented one-man band, much like Campfires. Multiversed musician Dave Collis performs everything—from music composition to vocals—himself and sometimes with help from a couple of his friends.
It’s important to mention the tags listed on My Dad’s bandcamp page to understand the band’s influences. First and foremost, this band mentioned they are a post-“whatever,” which is a humble and flippant insinuation that it is in fact the exact opposite: “whatever” is just a parody of post sub-genres taken far too seriously by not-so-seriously talented musicians.
But with Stunts, the instrumentals are atypical: there are drumming patterns that pair awkwardly at times with the guitar riffs. Of course, there is a Built to Spill quality in the intermittent delay of gratification.
The familiarity in My Dad’s arrangements has a warm undertone, and when preceding a wall of sound accumulation, the songs often fall short, leaving the listener at the edge of a dilapidated bridge wondering if this is the end.
And yet it oftentimes is, but not entirely. Stunts is an album wherein the name encompasses the theme. Imagine an actual suburban home: the garage is full of amps, dad’s power tools and a couple of 20-something punks swaying their heads back and forth, saturated in the dreamy pseudo-reality brought upon by strums, drums and screams.
Stunts will take the listener to this utopia. This is what My Dad’s dad always dreamed his son would not become: an aspiring musician. He shakes his head in disapproval (when in reality, Dad used to be in a band that called him Weed-man way back when he shredded it up on the bass).
Stunts is not rebellious, nor is it an abrasive album. There is a whimsicality that keeps it light but still intrigues the listener with tiny threats of paroxysms and spasms, just to tease the senses and test limitations of sound and structure.
You can buy Stunts or listen to “Tomacco IV – Flutter Iron” for free via bandcamp. My Dad will perform April 10 at Chicago’s Fireside Bowl.
My Dad – Stunts tracklist:
- “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul”
- “Stunts”
- “Thai Food”
- “Blasferatu is Fuckin’ Dead”
- “83 and Loving It”
- “Tomacco I – Contest”
- “Tomacco II – Panda”
- “Tomacco III – Barb”
- “Tomacco IV – Flutter Iron”
- “Tomacco V – Breeding”
