An instantly likeable heaping of southern rock..
author: Dennis Cook
An instantly likeable heaping of southern rock that plays with the rude elements of the Allman Brothers and marries them to something not dissimilar to the North Mississippi Allstars, except Daybreakdown writes better songs and delivers them with a lot less self-importance. There's the hard piano spank of Otis Spann and a bubbling percussion undertow that pulls you down into their Mississippi mud. They challenge themselves with ambitious arrangements, interesting mood shifts, and harmony parts that may eventually echo the vocal-finesse of the Black Crowes. The title tune is full of catchy couplets that suggest they may be venting the same spleen as the Drive-By Truckers, and the chugging tail section elevates the track above the merely good. "Dirty Sanford" is a 20-minute instrumental dragged from another corridor in Elizabeth Reed's memory, and while a lengthy drum solo feels a touch overlong, it again speaks to a band playing just outside their abilities in order to grow substantial. If radio success were based solely on a song's merit, then "The Ante" with its refrain of "the guitar don't give a damn" would be nuzzling up against FM replays of Skynyrd, The Who, and others. For a debut, this is awfully satisfying and surely a harbinger of good music ahead.
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Wiser should cement their status as simply one of the best Southern rock bands t
author: Planet Weekly
If their debut disc Make Me Wiser is any indication, Oxford’s DayBreakDown know their way around a studio just as well as they know how to get a crowd on its feet at a packed bar. They’ve already built a reputation as not just one of Mississippi’s best live bands, but as one of the best in the whole Southern circuit. Wiser should cement their status as simply one of the best Southern rock bands today.
Wiser doesn’t just attempt to slap their live show onto disc. Rather, it’s an accomplished, full-sounding and complex album, right up there with the acclaimed records by other hardworking contemporary Southern rockers like the Drive-By Truckers.
DayBreakDown is a band just as at home belting out a raucous, funky Black Crowes-style three-minute rocker (the album opener “Shake the Shackles”) as they are taking you on a furious head trip with their 19-minute instrumental opus (including drum solo), “Dirty Sanford.” The record’s best effort is the title track, a hard-chugging blues-based number that – were there justice in the world – would be a radio staple like Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road.”
Other standout tracks include the banjo-driven “Blue Tomorrow,” which might be what The Band would have sounded like if they were truly Southern instead of Canadian; “The Ante,” a dirty, whiskey-soaked guitar rocker that sounds like Skynyrd rocking out in the garage; and the crowd favorite “Naked,” which often spurs their fans to get, um, naked.
The dueling guitars of rhythm player Reid Stone and lead player Patrick McClary drive the band’s sound, while keys player Eric Carlton peppers the tunes with some intense and nimble-fingered piano and organ. The bass of “Big” John Patrick and the monster drumming of Tyler Rayburn lock the groove and give the band its powerful, big and full sound.
If you’re a fan of good time Southern rock ‘n’ roll, do yourself a favor and get your butt down to George Street for DayBreakDown’s CD release party this Monday night and pick up a copy of Make Me Wiser. I can’t guarantee it will make you any wiser, but it’s sure as hell going to make you get down.
(Four out of five stars)
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