Local Listen – The Dead & The Daylily Is Honest, Raw Dream Folk

This is an entry in a continuous chain for 303 Magazine, which will provide a selection of local record reviews. It is our intention to emphasize the talents of local musicians, whether specialists to the industry or newcomers. Like the rings, the record can be fresh or something we simply harbor ’t even possess the power to remove replicate in the past couple of months. Have a look at previous entries in the series here.

The Dead & The Daylily really are a gorgeous case of the masterwork created from the combination of raw talent and actual, nude emotion. Bringing their dream folk music to Denver, The Dead & The Daylily have tales to sharestories which they tell in their self-titled EP, The Dead & The Daylily — produced by Joe Richmond.  The EP is a first for the band, whose five members played their official first series together last July in the Underground Music Showcase. What began as a duo between Hannah Alzugaray and Russell Brozovich turned to an indefinable five-piece who have established their own version of dream folk.

For Alzugaray, dream folk includes a very two-part definition. Alzugaray and Brozovich began as gardeners with a passion for music. They finally decided to begin creating folk songs together. The music was emotional, described by Alzugaray as “sounding like waves of sense. ” This moving facet of folk is what she’s loosely defines as the “dream. ” When paired together, you’ve made this abstract genre of dream folk that The Dead & The Daylily produce and perform so beautifully. And if they’re still asking themselves questions — “who are we and what do we sound like? ” — that they ’ve weaved together the lyrics and music with a style really special to themselves.

Though The Dead & The Daylily comprises just four songs, the EP is full-bodied and well-rounded. With two songs written by Brozovich and 2 songs written by Alzugaray, there’s a good balance of vocals and lyricism as well. The album’s lyrics look like a personal notebook, leaving no emotion untouched and no feeling left unwound.  Alzugaray is behind “Count Me Out” and “Air Makes Fire,” which she describes as songs of hope. “Count Me Out” is a tune about silver linings and seeing yourself through challenging days of life. The tune is very special for the band, with it being the very first tune Alzugaray ever wrote and a tune that’s “the most fun to sing together. ” Alzugaray wrote “Air Makes Fire” following the conclusion of a connection. It is an oath to this person who can build up themselves on their own — a personal fight song that began with a solo ukulele and transformed over time.

Brozovich is the mind behind “Just Go Crazy” and “Baby Rae,” the latter of which will be a response to a catastrophe experienced by Brozovich and his wife. This tune saturates our deepest human emotions. “Just Go Crazy,” on the other hand, paints a great picture employing an unexpected analogy. In alluding to linemen functioning for power businesses back in the ‘20s and lsquo;30s  who dangerously increased towers with no security and no resources, Brozovich expresses how this lifetime can oftentimes feel — “No neck for an acrobat who’s snuffing arcs with an old hat. ”

Brozovich describes The Dead & The Daylily as a “mix of organic and artificial sounds,” which is how the band found their name. Working on the flower beds, Brozovich and Alzugaray would state “it’s time to take the dead out of the daylilies. ” The organic, folk noise is the daylily and the dead is the electronic, synthetic sound that the organic has joined forces with. This development is by way of the addition of three more band members  —  Trevor Jargon about the bass, Colin Hill on drums and Valerie Jargon on synth. Together, The Dead & The Daylily have discovered the complete, cohesive noise they were looking for. Together they are ready to begin working on a brand new, full size LP as a fresh and distinctive five-some.
Have a look at their self-titled EP here.

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