Dark Dark Dark
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Tour Dates 11/07/08 TBA, Eindhoven eindhoven
11/08/08 TBA, Eindhoven eindhoven 11/09/08 TBA, Eindhoven eindhoven 11/10/08 Floere Foefke Gent 11/11/08 Radio Primitive Reims 11/12/08 Le Ludoval Reims 11/13/08 La Miroiterie Paris 11/14/08 Le Sonic Lyon 11/15/08 TBA, St. Etienne St Etienne 11/16/08 Ker Boui Boui MORDELLES 11/17/08 Jet FM (91.2FM or streaming) Radio nantes 11/17/08 Le Violon Dingue Nantes 11/18/08 El Inca Bordeaux 11/19/08 Loubieres house show in the countryside, Foix 11/21/08 La Médiathèque Associative Toulouse 12/10/08 Frequency Madison, WI 12/11/08 Heaven Gallery Chicago, IL 12/12/08 Elbow Room Ypsilanti, MI 12/13/08 Monster House Columbus, OH 12/14/08 Morning Glory Coffeehouse Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 12/15/08 TBA Philadelphia, PA 12/16/08 Cake Shop Manhattan, NY 12/17/08 Whitehaus Boston, MA 12/18/08 AS220 Providence, RI 12/19/08 Union Pool Brooklyn, NY 12/21/08 Skull Alley Louisville, KY 12/22/08 Cinemat Bloomington, IN 12/27/08 Cedar Cultural Center Minneapolis, MN |
Just in time for Halloween comes Dark Dark Dark, the band so gloomy they named it thrice. Largely accordion and banjo driven – with cello, standup bass and sporadic percussion and piano, the effect is an anachronistic glimpse at a troupe of gypsy minstrels, perhaps seeking a riverside campfire and a chance to play for their dinner. Oh, and there are ghosts there. Lots of ’em.
Ghosts, graveyards, bones, dreams, winter, drowning: this is the vocabulary of Dark Dark Dark. Water imagery abounds throughout. And why not? There has always been something rustically aquatic and 19th century about a slow accordion song. Add a gently plucked banjo and a haunting vocal and it’s impossible not to imagine a foggy, moon-lit Mississippi riverboat bedecked with ethereal waltzing couples festooned in patchwork finery under flickering oil-lamps in what amounts to a macabre Mark Twain fever-dream.
Come on, it can’t be just me.
Yesterday saw the release of Dark Dark Dark’s first full-length “The Snow Magic,” which I think starts out with promise but in the end falls just short of delivering that promise. Opener “Ashes” is a beautifully morbid ditty which actually may qualify as an “anthem” but the passion fades a bit late into the album. That having been said; the damn thing is seriously growing on me. Their raw, slightly-under-rehearsed sound can be a bit off-putting initially. So why can’t I stop listening? I love the tone of the thing. It’s lyrically bleak, ominous; never in-your face. It’s more Mary Shelley than Steven King, more Tim Burton than M. Night Shyamalan. There’s no gruesome blood-bath here, more an overcast sense of foreboding. A requiem, not a murder. And considering the bleak nature of the lyrics, it’s actually a fun album. There’s some love imagery there. There’s a nice interplay of male and female vocals that’s rather endearing. Endearing…and sinister. I mean, obviously.
Links: myspace.com/darkdarkdarkband sad-music.net bloodonion.com
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