For those that have known Gabe Liebowitz for years, his new single “Vanishing Streets” may seem a bit out of left field. He made his bones in Chicago playing solo and in a great band called Dastardly before heading back to the east coast a few years ago. Since then he’s been paying the rent writing with acts like Terror Jr (check out “Smoke” if … Continue reading Calvero-Vanishing Streets
Rarely does an album so clearly of two minds work. The shift in tone is too great, or the styles just don’t mesh well; one way or another it crumbles under the weight of its own cleverness. Somehow Dastardly have managed to make 9 songs that don’t seem to fit together flow seamlessly on The Hollow. There’s some consistency at the beginning, with the … Continue reading Dastardly-The Hollow
This week marked the second anniversary of Music.Defined. so I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the stuff we’ve covered over the past year via photographs. Kari has taken a lot of great shots over the past year (and I snuck a few in that I took as well). I already posted it on Facebook and Twitter, but if … Continue reading Year 2 In Pictures
When I first brought the idea of Hasty Revelations to Rick Riggs at Handwritten, it was a purely selfish endeavor. How wonderful, I thought, to have bands that I love come in to the studio and play a song just for me. Of course, I would share these songs afterward, but for one hour, they were completely mine and no one else’s. Rick seemed to … Continue reading 60 Minutes Or Less: The Hasty Revelations Album
I guess it all started a few months ago. Random pictures on facebook and vague yet enticing words describing some secret recording happening at the Dastardly house. No real giveaways, just little snippets; “Reamping horns in pvc pipe #mysteryrecordingproject.” What could it all mean? Well, we all found out yesterday when Gabe Liebowitz decided to unleash this much talked about EP on the masses more than a month in advance of the release show planned for Schubas on August 30th.
I’d known for quite some time, since I saw them play a show at Beat Kitchen way back in November of last year, that Dastardly’s music was changing. Even with their EP Bury Me In The Country that dropped in January, I didn’t feel like they had captured the all around oddness of their new live show. They were still very much the folk/country band that built itself up on the shoulders of Jimmie Rodgers and Townes Van Zandt, but they were bringing in all kinds of new stuff. I think at the time I said that their new arrangements reminded me of Miles Davis. And now, just nine months later, they’ve delivered their own kind of Blue.
In all reality I’ve had a copy of this for a few weeks, but didn’t want to write anything about it until closer to the release. I didn’t want to give anything away, because I think a lot of people are going to be surprised by Ballads In Blue. It’s much deeper than either of Dastardly’s previous efforts, taking us into the abyss of Liebowitz’s mind where the old shack of country music legends is picked up and laid down in a Lynch-ian alternate universe where all music comes together. The world created on Ballads In Blue contains the most beautiful of dreams, and the darkest nightmares.
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