Dasha

Do You Feel At Home? #12

Dasha

This is not the fabled "big" post, as that one is taking an exorbitant amount of time. Rest assured, though, we're still gathering material, albeit slowly, for a full discography archive, and I cannot wait for people to hear it. For now, though, I present to thee one of my all time favorites, Dasha, and trust me, I can really keep these posts long-winded.

    Dasha was a midwest emo/indie/math-rock quintet based out of Rochester, New York, and were active from 2007 to around 2010. Members included: Colleen Vasey on vocals, Chris Bonawitz and Nick Fiske on guitar, Nick Maynard on bass, and Tommy Vollmer on drums. Now, though they're not from the midwest, I've seen them labeled as midwest emo a decent amount, and I think I'm inclined to agree, as I believe that umbrella is the most appropriate and apt one for them to be under. So I will henceforth refer to them as a midwest emo band. Although, knowing the emo/music landscape during the time which they were active, I suppose you could also throw them under the "revival" umbrella without too much of a hitch either. So, I guess you could call them a "midwest emo revival" band? I don't know, seems unnecessary to me. Anyway, my personal opinions aside, this blog is dedicated to every branch of emo, and just music that I love in general (which just so happens to be mostly emo/hardcore/indie-rock), so Dasha would not be, and is not out of place, not even in the slightest.

    Referring to their old mySpace page, the band described their sound as, and no this isn't a joke, "john madden playing guitar hero". I mean, fuck it, if they think it checks out then I think so too. With that said, the band is, as I mentioned earlier, often placed under the "midwest emo" umbrella, and I think for good and immediately understandable reasons. The bands influences ring very true upon listening, (though they never explicitly wear them on their sleeves) with those influences being; The Appleseed Cast (god forbid), Ghosts And Vodka, No Knife, Lil' Mama, Hey Mercedes, Karate, Murder City Devils, Owls, The Promise Ring, Band of Horses, and of course Lil' Wayne... wait, what? Nevermind. Anyway, skimming through all the bands listed, I'd put big emphasis on the Kinsella acts, Karate, The Appleseed Cast, and Hey Mercedes, which should give you an accurate idea of what you're signing yourself up for... That being a hell of a good time!

Quick interlude:

  
  Here's a small collection of band photos, (as well as live performances) all of which were uploaded to last.fm in or around 2009. (Excluding the image featured all the way up top, which was taken from their old mySpace page.)

And one more on Vimeo for good measure!

   
Now, onto the actual music already.

    Good news everyone! You can thank Thomas (Dasha's drummer) for this wonderful slice of incredible music, that being Dasha's elusive demo! (You'll notice I've struck through a whole mini paragraph of text below) I had been dying to hear it for a very, very long time, and I'm happy to report that it's everything I'd hoped it would be. Previous rough versions of songs is a treat I always love to feast upon, and this demo is certainly no different. For your listening pleasure, I've gone ahead and included a download link below, as per usual, and have uploaded it onto YouTube! Enjoy, and kind regards from Dasha!

Demo

1. The Future Mrs. Olivia Benson
2. The Bonj
3. This Robot Leaks, Fix Her! Fix Her!
4. The Progression Of Decomposition

 

    After the release of their demo, Dasha would release their sole "full-length" effort, that being their 2009 mini-album "Damned If We Do". (Well, sorta. They did have a very short run of custom printed tapes for their four song demo, which contained previous versions of songs that would later be featured on this disc, however, those are nowhere to be found, according to the band. Though, Chris suggested there may have been an old PureVolume upload, but we all know how that goes...) Anyhow, this record was released both digitally and on CDr, courtesy of Whaleplane Records (here's a sampler CD they uploaded to Bandcamp, with one of the tags underneath it being "retired", which I find pretty amusing.), and this release confidently stands as one of my personal favorites--though, nowadays, the disc itself doesn't turn up... Anywhere. It was $5 at shows, and $6 + shipping online via Whaleplane back in the day, but as the unstoppable march of time encroaches and consumes all, I assume that most of them have now drifted into obscurity... So, if any do start to turn up, I sincerely recommend and urge ya to get one. (I myself own three copies at the time of writing this.) As for the material present, it's some absolutely wonderful female-fronted midwest emo, as I've already described throughout this post. Their influences from the Kinsella family tree and the handful of other acts I distinctly emphasized reflect in the bands fantastic instrumental work, and with Colleen's vocals on top, makes for one beautiful and remarkably powerful helping of twangy indie/emo goodness, all with a very welcome "mathy" kick. It's quite the polished record, and as far as I'm concerned, it has stood the test of time, though it hasn't been too long since it was released (y'know, it's only been, what... 14 years?). Simply put, it's loaded front to back with one amazing song after the next, and with that said, I don't think there's ever a single dull moment to be heard on here, to my ears anyway. The bands performances really are nothing short of stellar, and Colleen's songwriting is absolutely fantastic, hell, it's quite uplifting, and almost anthemic at times! I'm more than positive that anyone who's even remotely a fan of the genre will enjoy this--it's a tad bit short, with a rather diminutive run time that clocks in just above 21 minutes, but it's certainly sweet, and I think it's more than deserving of peoples attention. Please, if you haven't, go give it a listen--definitely a great record for the fall/winter season! (I myself have listened to it hundreds upon hundreds of times!) You can find it on Bandcamp for free (though I wish it was at least "name your price"), and it is also available on streaming. I've included scans of the CDr package below. Thanks for reading.

Damned If We Do

1. Little Ghosts
2. The Progression Of Decomposition
3. Admiral
4. Leather Sweater
5. The Future Mr. Olivia Benson
6. The Bonj
7. Oneders
8. This Robot Leaks, Fix Her! Fix Her!
9. We Are In The Dark


I have also transcribed the record in full over on Genius.

^ Instagram Post ^

A massive and very special thank you to Chris Bonawitz & Nick Friske (and all of Dasha) for being such awesome and wonderful people, y'alls music really means a lot to me!