Fine & Dandi

My roommate buys a lot of music. He likes to buy in bulk – often dropping over $300 in one afternoon at the local record store. What this equates to is a lot of new music laying around for me to check out. Recently, I arrived home to find a bag of newly purchased vinyl from Rotate This, mostly EPs and 12” singles of artists I’d never heard of. One of these EPs was by Dandi Wind, called break the bone and suck the marrow from it.

Intrigued by both the title and the artwork (jet black, with a pencil sketch of a tattooed yet innocent young woman on the front, and the bust of a dark, brooding man on the back), I tossed it on for a go-round on the old pioneer.

What I heard was a frantic (at times frightened) but awkwardly catchy effort from a pair of underground Canadian musicians/artists that deserve to be spoken about a whole lot more often. The sound is not unlike the distorted synth from the dancier, more accessible Blood Brothers tracks crossed with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at their art-punk finest. In fact, Vancouver-turned Montreal lead vocalist Dandilion Wind Opaine churns out pitches and shrieks reminiscent of the enigmatic Karen O at her best.

Through a bit more research on their website, I was informed that this EP, released in 2005, is the one of the earliest of a number of releases by the band. Their catalogue includes one full-length (and one to be released in 08), as well as five (completely sold out) EPs released in the past two-plus years, seemingly all released on different labels.

break the bone... itself contains four tracks: two original edits (Balloon Factory and Mississippi Mud Pie), the Manderson remix of Mafu Cage, and hyperactive cover of the 80’s staple Safety Dance, sounding like if Men without Hats had contracted rabies.

The stand-out track seems to be Balloon Factory, though the entire four-track effort has me interested enough to find more. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a ton of access (from what I can find) to their music online apart from what they’ve posted on Myspace (only available streaming), as well as clips from their earlier releases on their website and the occasional insane live footage. But, if their latest EP selling out completely in one week earlier this month serves as an indication, this band may be on the verge of being the talk of more than just the odd blog post.

Dandi Wind - Balloon Factory

Dandi Wind - Safety Dance (Men without Hats cover)

- bbbykmbrly.