Our Friends: The Damnwells
The Damnwells are doing something special today, they are releasing their album, One Last Century, for free. No catch, just free. Not free as in, “hey this is free just sign up for netflix”* junk free, but free, as in free. They’re doing this because they want you to hear the record and I want you to hear it too.
Lets see here, I think the Damnwells seeped into my sub concious pretty early on. We would get a lot of comparisons to other bands when we first started. Usually people in their early 30s would say we reminded them of the Gin Blossoms, hip dudes in their 40s would talk to me about Westerberg and the Mats, older than that they usually just stick with Petty. A couple people here and there brought up a band called the Damnwells. I thought I had heard of them but I was thinking of a band called the Damn Personals that was around a couple years back. A couple months after our EP came out I went down to Park Ave CDs to browse the used bin. They had a copy of Bastard of the Beat, the first Damnwells record.
The purchase was a bit of a revelation, I drove around in the van until the record was over. I was a bit spooked by the similarities between the Damnwells and us like trains on parallel tracks. It was a relief to feel that someone else shared a similar understanding about music, wrote songs the same way, etc.
It gets a little shaky here as many things of internet past are. I saw that the Damnwells had a documentary coming out about their journeys in major label hell called Golden Days. The guy that directed the film, Chris Suchorsky, got ahold of our myspace. I think I wrote him a message about how much I was looking forward to the release. He put one of our tracks up on his page and a couple Damnwellians got at it from there. Alex and I chatted for a bit after that, about music, songwritting, whatever they mean when they say “the industry”, what and who Paper Candy is actually about, what living in California is like and if what were trying to do is worth a damn.
The Damnwells, in whatever form they find, is a band to root for. Alex is a guy to believe in. They’ve been tagged with “the best band you’ve never heard of” countless times, I think that’s funny. Are we the perrenial underdogs? Maybe that’s part of what makes it work.
Well you can be part of that club for free today. Maybe you’ll find your new favorite band, maybe you’ll just get something to listen to at work, or something in the background while you clean up your apartment. I’m ok with all of those things. I don’t listen to every record I own with headphones on, or even great gear.
On Saturday April 4th we’re playing the Mercury Lounge in New York City with the Damnwells. They’ve been kind enough to put us on their show. If you’re in the area lets hang and get food and listen to jams. Daniel Berry likes to call that area up front where you sing along and play air guitar “the rock zone”, I’ll be in the rock zone at that show, you can meet me there.
I can’t speak for Alex or the Damnwells, just me. I’m sure someone will talk about this in terms of a ‘marketing plan’, someone will talk about ‘what it means for the industry’, someone will ask ‘well, how do you get paid?’ There may be ideas like that behind it, maybe not, who knows, who cares, the heart of it is sharing an experience with someone and that is a great gift.
DOWNLOAD THE NEW DAMNWELLS RECORD “ONE LAST CENTURY” AT PASTE.COM
click here
DOWNLOAD THE EDGE OF AMERICA EP FOR FREE AT PISFORPANDA.COM
click here
*I love netflix, this morning I watched two episodes of Voltron instantly.
