Deathray Davies: The Kick and the Snare

I love this band so much that even though my bandmate Jason gave me a downloaded copy of The Kick and the Snare a few weeks ago, as soon as it was available for purchase on their website, I bought it. I am also attempting to sneak the review past my editor.

In the whole “garage band” explosion of the last couple of years, the art of writing pop songs got lost in the scramble to sign the next White Stripes.

John Dufilho has mastered this skill. In a conversation I had with him and keyboard player Chad Ferman a couple of years ago, Chad said that “John writes great songs like the rest of us go to the bathroom, a few of ‘em a day.”

Dufilho and company create a superlative version of 60s pop. Good and fuzzy, three chords, and just enough keyboards to flesh out the perfect melodies, tambourine, handclaps, and “baa baa baa,” Deathray Davies songs are not ordinary sunny songs.

Most of the lyrical content deals not with only broken relationships, but more so with the character flaws of the people that break up relationships, with the finger pointed directly at the songwriter.

You owe it to yourself, and a talented dude like Dufilho, to go buy this record, if not a few of the other gems in their catalog. If you are into power pop, or garage, or just fucking great music, go get this.

- Bill Barry
Deathray Davies