SO MANY DYNAMOS

There are many ways to begin an adventure, one of which involves the consumption of a peanut butter, honey, banana, raisin, and jelly sandwich. The PBHBR&J sandwich does a good job initiating an adventure because it is, in fact, an adventure itself. Every bite is like a whole spread of flavors, gripped together with (chunky) peanut butter, leaking marmalade spread from the toasted corners of oats-and-honey bread.

So began my adventure with St. Louis, MO’s So Many Dynamos. My personal adventure would be far more positive from theirs, which sounds ominous. It’s just that the four Dynamos have been the victims of two thefts and two transmissions on this tour, and the second transmission basically gave up outside my apartment. That’s a lot of loss for a band paying rent with the money they make on the road, where they’ve been non-stop since June. Dynamos told me upon arrival that band moral was low, a good thing to be open about when (and only when) A) your band mates are around and agree, and B) when you don’t let it effect your live performance. I’m developing a theory that suggests that the intensity of a live performance in times of drooping moral hints at a band’s integrity. The theory became sturdier during Dynamos fiery set last Monday night at Club Pow.

I don’t think this band could be held back. Not by rain, sleet, or ten thousand transmission saboteurs trying their collective hands at stealing guitars. This band is aware of the energy their music produces. That music is raw: it’s Fugazi’s End Hits and At The Drive In’s In/Casino/Out and Q And Not U’s No Kill No Beep Beep all cooked into one amazing PBHBR&J sandwich. A better way to think about Dynamos is to consider the space Dismemberment Plan covered in their whole career, from ! to Change, one of my Favorite Albums Of All Time (FAOAT). That was a whole lot of namedropping, but also a whole lot of FAOAT’s. What do these albums have in common with each other and with Dynamos? Certain elements are audible. Dynamos use familiarly technical riffs and tones, especially comparable to the fuzzy treble assault of both ! and No Kill No Beep Beep. Griffin Kay’s and Ryan Wasoba’s dual guitars are balanced in their creativity and effect; there are no leads, only tandem good ideas. Norm’s (Dynamos chrome drummer who is credited on their album under a name he doesn’t go by) drumming goes that extra mile to frantically seek unexpected accents. Dynamos have no bass player. Vocalist Aaron Stovall rocks two blurpy keyboards. They are used tastefully so that the band neither sounds like The Faint nor exactly like The Faint.

The real meaty thing about all these adventurous bands is that Dynamos sound less like them and more like the new bearers of the same torch. Dynamos seem concerned about advancing all of the pop-songwriting renovations Dismemberment Plan attempted. Examples: take the quirky, personality-heavy lyricism, or the strange time signatures that were fun to get familiar with, or the quality sound engineering, or the involved instrumentation that reminds us that rock music actually has evolved beyond “Satisfaction.” Dynamos use these serious tactics to excel on their excel-lent (count it!) second full length, Flashlights. In the next five years there won’t be many tracks as instantaneous as the second track, “Search Party,” which the band opened with live. The song’s bookend-hook is sung first by Stovall alone and then later as a choral vocal. The lyric is, from where I’m sitting, the finest admonition of artistic ambition this year. “There will be no search party for us,” Dynamos sing. There will be no search party for us! It’s worth mentioning that Mr. Stovall’s voice sounds like Travis Morrison’s (D-Plan’s singer), which I find more comforting than anything else. (I always thought Tom DeLonge also sounded like a ninth grade Mr. Morrison.) Like Mr. Morrison—and maybe more so (we’ll see)—Stovall grounds his band with melody, especially while they’re being dissonant or feedback-y. The end product is total outsider-pop-genius.

So go buy Flashlights right now. That’s the moral, though there’s still more adventure to be had. Dynamos rocked Pow Monday, but with heavy eyelids/consciences. The band had been awake until 5 a.m. in Portland, OR with one of the tours many life preservers, Christopher Walla. Many awesome people have told me that Mr. Walla considers Flashlights one of the best albums of the year. In July he will be involved in the creation of Dynamos’ next album. This is exciting in a lot of ways, namely considering the space Hot Hot Heat covered between the cool-kids-punk of Scenes One Through Thirteen and the Mr. Walla-produced Knock Knock Knock EP. Fewer cocoons could better nurture Dynamos potential. I also learned that the band has a national tour lined up with Horse The Band in the spring, a great opportunity for Dynamos to show off and expand. Alas, robbery, a dead van, and $700 in the band till can temper future excitement, especially when the band has $700-worth of rent due back at home. But Dynamos beat back their despair and kicked ass. Half of them crashed at The Backstage (my house) and half were down the street at a friend’s place. I didn’t expect to see them again until SXSW.

But the next day at about 3 p.m. Mr. Wasoba called me at work. “We need to ask you something,” he began. His skepticism was unnecessary. Of course it was all right to use our van to make it to San Francisco. I left work early and, PBHBR&J in hand, picked up the Dynamos in the carefully named Pegasus (our van). We headed out to the dreary cuts of north Sacramento where Mr. Norm had been handling the transmission drama all day. Things weren’t looking good. We loaded up the Pegasus with Dynamo gear and loaded up the Dynamos with JIBS and were off. The drive was quiet; the band slept or listened to their home team kick some Motor-City ass on the radio. That victory seemed very distant for the boys, who were still 2,000 miles from home, taking someone else’s van to a show with no guarantee, and facing $2,300 in transmission repairs. Fortunately, the home cooked spread Cafe Du Nord (the venue) provides for performers was still steaming. (Tuesday nights fair included warm French bread, mixed greens salad, piccata-style chicken, gourmet sausage, amazing cabbage wraps filled with curried rice, sautéed zucchini, and fresh baked cookies.)

About 60 people trickled into Du Nord by the time Dynamos went on stage. The band looked pretty spent. As fate would have it, the power went out on one side of the stage during the first song. As Mr. Stovall and Mr. Kay tried to determine what was wrong, Mr. Wasoba and Mr. Norm played “Search Party” twice as hard. “What was that song called?” the girl next to me asked. I told her. She would tap my shoulder four more times during the set asking me for song titles. I suppose most attendees were there to see THIS band, the media darlings that they are. Good choice for those attendees, who were drenched in the Dynamos experience. The dance floor filled up by sets end.

Dynamos ended both nights with the amazing song “Progress,” which, along with “Search Party” is available for download on the band’s Myspace. This track seemed appropriate by the time we cruised back into Sacramento early Wednesday morning: Dynamos had successfully (and profitably) rocked SF, sampled some killer Mission burritos, and met a curious sample of the Bay Area wildlife (namely a crazy dude in camouflage who said “Just let me finish…” 48 times during a five minute chat). They slept in the next day and ended up getting a temporary fix on their transmission—just enough to get them back to St. Louis (they made it back fine and have already junked their van).

I can’t say enough about Dynamos’ music. They cash in on so many of my favorite moments from so many of my favorite albums that they are now one of my favorite bands. I’m posting two MP3’s. “How High The Moon” is possibly my favorite-est song from Flashlights, and I think it sounds like the entire history of rock and roll music in four minutes. The other track is called “When We Were Machines” from Dynamos’ first record When I Explode. The band was just as great a year ago, though Mr. Stovall’s vocals are more confident now. These songs slay live and should aptly illustrate the spectrum of Dynamos clever party-punk-pop-rock.

The band starts touring the east coast this Wednesday (November 1) and should be announcing late winter/spring dates soon. They are also taking donations for their recent gear and transportation troubles via Paypal: email skrilla to octipod@gmail.com.

Click to download “How High The Moon” from the album Flashlights by So Many Dynamos.
Click to download “When We Were Machines” from the album When We Explode by So Many Dynamos.

Visit So Many Dynamos’ WEBSITE.
Visit So Many Dynamos on MYSPACE.
Visit So Many Dynamos on LAST.FM.
Visit So Many Dynamos at ALL MUSIC.
Visit So Many Dynamos’ LABEL.
Buy When I Explode from Amazon.
Buy Flashlights from Skrocki Records.
Read about Flashlights at PITCHFORK.
Visit So Many Dynamos the consultant firm. (Unrelated to the band, but still palindromic and fascinating. Go figure!)