Artist: Dandelion Children
Label: Self-released
Release: 2009
Duration: http://www.dandelion-children.com/
Rating: 4/5
Dandelion Children, dandelion fluff, a trio! A garage trio. Throw in a bit of blues, a bit of punk, old-school classic rock, even some post-Britpop melodies (hello Kaiser Chiefs?), in short, what can you even say? It’s an interesting stew that smells independent, direct, really authentic in its energy, and, what matters most, hits as real as it gets. You don’t need Einstein to figure it out. The opener Alliance Pleasure will spill everything right away.
The album sounds like they recorded one of the band’s rehearsals. The raw sound and that live feel across the record are surely a very important factor in helping the point of the band’s sermon, or rather the songs, hit the required and desired effect. Jure’s vocals are definitely the first thing that grabs the listener’s attention. The voice is whinnying, hoarse and cracked, with a touch of goofy psychedelia; all that’s missing is a cockney accent to make the picture complete. Luckily there isn’t one, and for a Slovenian, the ride through English is hugely successful. American English, that is. Jure deftly changes costumes from song to song and, through his punk-fueled haze, successfully brings to life the emotional states typical of how individual songs develop, especially the verses.
The band comes across so spontaneous and genuine that it almost overdoes it. In their wish to sound as natural and unfaked as possible, some songs leave the impression of being “half-finished.” To put it simply, quite a few songs have a really interesting structure, and yet the band wraps them up in the middle of the second minute or the third at most. Take a song like 3x Dead Funky Man: it’s a brilliantly conceived track that has everything (great motif linking, contrasting complements), but the band ends it after barely two minutes, which is a crying shame.
With as many as 14 songs on the album that don’t differ much from each other in energy vibe, it’s a pity the band didn’t polish some of the tracks a touch more, make them a bit more resolved and rounded, and stretch them by a minute or a minute and a half, ending up with 10-12 “sharply dressed” songs standing even more confidently side by side in their concise compactness! Of course, that’s just a sign of youthful naivety, an untamed urge to prove themselves, and the fact that Dandelion Children are a young band that’s still toughening up and maturing through gathering experience and personal growth. And that’s a good thing, because it’s happening naturally, so it’ll be interesting to watch the band’s artistic progress in the future. From album to album.
“Stole My Bike” is a successful debut statement for the band. The trio of musicians shows they get along well and that the energy bonds between them work in mutually complementary ways. That’s very important in the case of Dandelion Children, since the garage bite and rock directness of the debut suggest this is a band that only shows its true worth on stage. So the trio and the album “Stole My Bike” can’t stand any cosmetic primping in the studio. Another plus you can feel is that the band obviously recorded everything in the first “take.” There’s practically no overdubbing, or very little, practically unnoticeable. The squeak of “careless” scratching on the strings (between riffs), picked up by the pickups, is often preserved, and now and then you can even catch the hum of the amps in the background (No Land).
A few ideas are capitalized on brilliantly on the album. The mildly psychedelic development of Dare Station, which at the start eases the tension of the previous, furious In The Go before spilling over into a storm of rock roaring, shows off all the songwriting talent of this young and promising trio. Then a song like Middle Finger shows the band even manages to channel some impulses of old-school power blues craft, garage-packaged. In that respect, the band may have benefited from sharing a bill with Radio Moscow two years ago in Ljubljana, opening up a new view of the realm of rock for themselves. Then there’s a song like Baby Blues, where the band combines, surprisingly well, a punk kick in the intro with acoustic psychedelia afterwards, and on top of that throws in a guitar solo (short, but the bluesy touch in it suggests the band knows well what a melody is). The band doses it all on the album with a cheeky note of self-parodying satire, crowned by the closing goof So We’ll Sing, with a hidden harmonica accompaniment.
What’s most thrilling about this album is exactly what repels gourmets and sound hair-splitters across the board. This is an album where anything goes that can help showcase the unbridled, rebellious rock arrogance that the energy of “Stole My Bike” is all about. So for all you couch potatoes rotting in front of the TV, jerking off to the latest episode of “Kmetija,” here’s the message: “Stole My Bike” can easily unclog your abused ear canals and clean out important brain centers, leading you onto the right path of self-healing! And if that’s not possible, there’s no helping you, which in the end adds up to no loss at all for you.
Dandelion Children are interesting oddballs on the Slovenian rock scene. They successfully combine elements of punk rumbling with the power blues connotations of old-school rock impulses, which can surprise even a wider circle of fans of unbridled rock energy. From those of you who know the debut of multi-million sellers Jet, the indie International Noise Conspiracy, and the garage bluesmen Radio Moscow, to those who grew up on primitive rock hooligans à la Grand Funk Railroad. Check out “Stole My Bike.” Naivety is beautiful because it’s genuine. The band is learning, growing, and it’s happening naturally. Dandelion Children could be very interesting to independent labels like Moonlee Records or FV Music. And Katja is a seriously talented drummer for a girl!
Lineup
Jure – vocals, bass guitar
Anže – guitar
Katja – drums
Production
Dandelion Children
Tracklist
1. Alliance Please
2. Sell the Can
3. 3h After… or Not
4. Prom
5. British Knightts
5. Garden Throne
6. 3x Dead Funky Man
7. In the Go
8. Dare Station
9. Middle Finger
10. No Land
11. Reform (SSD)
12. Baby Blues
13. Distorted
14. So We’ll Sing
