Going Back to Dizz Knee Land

When I was in high school, I used to check the Nielsen ratings every week to see how my favorite shows were doing. I remember at one point, I complained about how The Flash had come in something like 80th that week. (And no wonder, since CBS hadn’t a frickin’ clue how to promote it, but that’s an entirely different story.) When my mother asked me why I should care what other people thought as long as I liked it, I (for once) had a good answer for her: if no one else likes it, they won’t make more. Sure enough, the show was canceled after one season. Once I had figured out that equation, “no audience = no money = no more good stuff,” I never begrudged any artist for hitting the big time, because unless the artist was a total sell-out at heart, it could only mean I’d get to see or read or hear more stuff that I liked.

It sure couldn’t have hurt for dada, the trio whose 1992 album Puzzle is on my Top 5 Albums list. The band originally signed with IRS Records, the label that signed The Police, R.E.M., Concrete Blonde and a slew of other groups but somehow failed to avoid going bankrupt shortly after dada released its third album, El Subliminoso. The group then moved to MCA Records and released dada in 1998, before Universal bought MCA and Joie Calio, Michael Gurley and Phil Leavitt found themselves to be free agents once again. At that point, the three members declared a hiatus and moved on to pursue side and solo projects, swearing all the while they would get back together when they were ready.

Now, maybe they would still have needed a break if “Information Undertow” had been all over the radio in ’98. After all, Calio says, “We’re on hiatus because I needed a break from dada . . . this is a result of my needs as an artist, not a result of the biz.” But when members of a band participate in a chat in which their fans ask if they can play in their town and the band members respond that they would be willing if someone would sponsor the date, as dada did in 1999, you have to think that the grind of trying to succeed in the modern music biz has sapped at least some of their energy. And even if a break was inevitable, Calio does say that “the biz was certainly a part of my reasoning to take a break when I did. If we were riding the crest of our success I would have waited until a more opportune time.”

Despite the hiatus, there are a number of fans trying to harness the power on the Net to keep the band’s name circulating. Whether or not they’re successful, they are certainly not unappreciated. “One of the greatest assets the band dada has is its fans,” says Calio. “They are the best. They are a breed apart. They are real music lovers and they have always been there for us. What they do on their own doesn’t have anything to do with me really. they do it because they have a connection with the music and with themselves and I love all their enthusiasm. I don’t know how much effect their efforts have on my career but it has an effect on my personal being. They make me feel like I must be doing something right.”

The official dada site hasn’t been updated in quite some time, but the message board remains fairly active, and Calio drops by from time to time with updates. (The latest? “[O]nce again the headlines are as follows….dada, not signed, on long pink floyd style hiatus, doing solo stuff, not touring, not broken up, and crashing on mountain bikes.”) The board also features an individual who seems to take a perverse pleasure from insulting the band and its fans; one can only assume from Calio’s responses that it’s some kind of inside joke tolerated by the band, or else that their message board utterly lacks any kind of screening capability and they’re making the best of it.

Dizzkneeland features weekly updates on the “solo stuff.” (Drummer Leavitt has been working with a Blue Man Group production in Las Vegas, and has formed a side project with musicians from that effort called Uberschall. Bassist/singer/songwriter Calio is working on an autobiographical book and a solo project, and guitarist/singer/songwriter Gurley has formed an alt-pop/rock group called Butterfly Jones that will soon release an album from Vanguard Records.) The site also features dadaTV, MPEG videos of live performances and other interesting items. (The performance of “All I Am” from the old MTV Jon Stewart Show is well worth the time it takes to download.) Dizzkneeland is probably better put-together than even the official site; the designer, Lance Nealy is a music producer and production designer for MTV.com and MTV2.com, so that’s probably not too much of a surprise.

Stretch Annie’s Dada Tunes Page contains, well, dada tunes, downloadable in the MP3 format. It’s an audio counterpart to Dizzkneeland, with studio outtakes, b-sides and other rare songs, demos and live performances. (Although Annie’s been having some problems lately, since her site is hosted by the somewhat-precarious NBCi.) Until the band settles the legal wrangling that surrounds its attempt to release a CD of previously-unheard dada material (Calio thinks it will be out within the year), Annie’s stockpile is one of your best bets for a dada fix. (UPDATE: Annie’s moved to Tripod, and is gradually rebuilding the library.)

Dada Day 3.0 is an annual attempt to coordinate requests to radio stations and video outlets to play songs and videos by the band. Laura Kelley organizes the project, which just wrapped up its 2001 effort. The site features links to a number of radio stations’ web site request lines and suggested request messages in praise of dada. The site is a bit cluttered with graphics and buttons, but Kelley’s enthusiasm is unmistakable. Like me, Kelley was first pulled in by the somewhat surreal “Dizz Knee Land,” dada’s first single, which makes sport of the ubiquitous commercial tag line and includes the suddenly-topical-once-more line “I just flipped off President George, I’m going to Dizz Knee Land.” Kelley says, “I can remember listening to my car radio as I was driving to high school one morning and I heard this wonderful, witty, creative song . . . I thought to myself, that is a great band!”

(I’m not sure what it is about dada, car radios and high school, but one of my fondest memories is driving to school with Kevin one day with the windows down and “Dim” blaring from the speakers.)

Like the fans on that 1999 chat, Kelley wants to see more of the group: “I saw dada in Chicago a few years back and stood in the crowd with my jaw on the ground for about 1/2 the concert. I was hooked.” That may explain the effort put into projects like dada Day; then again, it may be something else. “I just do my part. That’s what life is all about, eh? I believe in the underdog. Maybe that is why I am a major Cubs fan. Well, if dada or their solo careers take off like the Cubs have…. watch out world!”

In the hopes that dada will return someday, and that when they do they’ll find the audience they deserve, here’s a more detailed rundown of their four albums:

Puzzle: To the extent that dada has any hits, this is where you’ll find them. The sometimes-cynical sense of humor of “Dizz Knee Land” permeates a few of the other tracks, like “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” and “Posters.” But there is also a solid emotional core to the songwriting. “Timothy” is the story of a boy whose life is so depressing he resorts to fantasy; the accompanying strings might come off as overbearing if they weren’t so well balanced by the understated bass, acoustic guitar and vocals, all of which build in intensity throughout the song. “Surround” is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. At its core, it’s just percussion work and acoustic guitar playing a melody that’s simple yet elevating (with similar lyrics), but it layers other instruments in so well that the resulting harmonies intensify the feeling. “Dim” captures the sense of desperation of a person who looks back on his life at the end of a relationship and isn’t sure how he got where he is; as he asks “Can’t this car go any faster/’cause I can still see where I am” the drums and electric guitar drive the song forward. There’s not a bad song on this album, and it’s still in print.

American Highway Flower: In this 1994 follow-up, the band went with a somewhat more subdued approach. The tempo on many of the tracks is a bit slower than those on Puzzle, although “All I Am” can give “Dim” a run for the money thanks to some great drum work from Leavitt and “S.F. Bar ’63” is a great rock tune. Gurley’s guitar work on the opener, “Ask the Dust,” is also frenetic and intense, but the spare arrangements of the melancholic “Scum” — whose narrator is “waiting for somebody else to deal with all the scum” — are more characteristic of the album as a whole, in emotional tone if not strictly in musical style. The de-emphasis on melody on songs like “Feel Me Don’t You” and “Real Soon” is a bit disappointing, because the musicianship is still solid — the songs just don’t seem to go anywhere. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but dada’s strength to me lies in songs like the happy-go-lucky “Gogo” or the introspective “i,” and the band doesn’t play to that strength on some of these tracks. Still, this is a better disc than I remember it being when I first bought it, and the good songs on it are really good.

El Subliminoso: This 1996 album feels like a hybrid between the first two, with some heavier production techniques worked in. The sense of energy and movement from Puzzle is back, on songs like “Sick in Santorini” and “The Spirit of 2009,” but there’s quite a bit of the harder edge from American Highway Flower as well. “2009” uses the percussion to move the song while the faded and somewhat distorted guitar sound creates a retro-future ambience that seems appropriate for a song trying to capture the tone of a date a decade in the future. “A Trip with My Dad” describes a journey of the hallucinogenic variety, which may not be quite the kind of heartwarming affirmation of the family that some people are looking for from modern music, but it ought to count for something. (It doesn’t sounds half bad either, thanks to Calio and Gurley’s vocals.) Gurley lets loose with a few guitar jams and solos on this album, such as on “You Won’t Know Me.” I’m not a guitar-jam kind of guy, but the man can play. This is probably my least favorite dada album, although “Sick in Santorini” and “I Get High” are darned fine songs, and Calio lists a bunch of tracks from this album as among his favorites. (My unerring ability to disagree with a composer as to his or her best work is probably why many bands I like wind up going in different directions than I’d prefer.)

Dada: This album features just about everything that’s good about the band. The energy and harmonies are back, and so are the catchy melodies, this time with a little bit more electric guitar and production complexity. “Where You’re Going” uses echoing guitar as an anchor in the background, while the percussion, bass and more guitar drive the song forward. “The Ballad of Earl Grey and Chamomile” features more great guitar work and is a close second as my favorite song on the album. It’s yet another look back at happier times, which might become a cliché if dada didn’t do it so damned well. The background vocals on the chorus do a tremendous job of making you feel the excitement of those better days. “Information Undertow,” which I quoted on the Quote-a-Rama thread, has some of dada’s most inventive lyrics, and they only seem more apropos three years later, although my appreciation of lines like “I’m everywhere I want to be, nowhere especially” may say more than I want to about my own online habits. “Goodbye” is a beautiful ballad about the end of a relationship. “Beautiful Turnback Time Machine” is a cool track about what we’d do if we could do it all over again. “This Thing Together,” a song whose optimism may or may not be tempered by the “You know I’ll miss you when you’re gone” chorus, is carried by the vocals but has a great rhythm to it. These songs are the highlights, but the disc is solid from top to bottom. When dada does come back, I’m hoping they continue in the vein of this album.

About Dave Thomer

Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.

May 1, 2001 @ 12:00 am

Culture and Media