Power trio keeps rock alive at 8150

In between stops at the Whisky à Go Go in Los Angeles and tour dates in Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and dozens of other cities, another national headline act has found space to stop by 8150 and hook us up with some high quality music.

This time around it’s Dada, the power trio that came onto the scene just over 10 years ago with the hit “Dizz Knee Land,” along with gems like “Dim,” and “Trip With My Dad.”

Back in the early nineties, Dada was part of an elite group of alternative rockers – back when the term “alternative” really meant alternative. Read the rest of this entry »

Dada’s on the road again

Dada isn’t dead.

After a more than three-year hiatus, the Los Angeles rock trio recently kicked off a 38-day tour to promote the band’s first studio album in nearly five years.

Drummer Phil Leavitt said the outing isn’t a reunion tour or an attempt to get back some of the critical and commercial buzz the band saw when its debut album, “Puzzle,” came out in 1992 and sold 500,000 copies.

The album spawned the hit single “Dizz Knee Land,” which became a modern-rock staple. Read the rest of this entry »

Dada: refreshing change from Top 40 songs

Those who been turned off by tuneless, repetitive Top 40 songs and have given up on rock music should give it another chance.

The trio dada, coming to the Pickle Barrel on Killington Road on March 4, hearkens back to a generation ago when intelligible lyrics, well-crafted songs and harmony singing were more the rule than the exception.

The fact that they have put out several releases doesn’t mean they’ve had a fair chance at national exposure. Read the rest of this entry »

Irrationality, chance and intuition

‘When dada came out with pop single “Dizz Knee Land” in 1992, they had no idea they’d jump to the front of the line. The single slid into the #5 slot on Billboard’s pop list.

Several albums, a couple solo careers and one helluva sabbatical later, the group is back together again and touring like mad. The bus stops in Vail today for a show at 8150. Doors open at 8 p.m. and Wild Blooms open. Read the rest of this entry »

Alt-rockers Dada together again after extended break

After playing with the same band for close to a decade, Joie Calio needed a break — not a breakup, just a long vacation.

“I said, `Look, here’s the deal, I need time to do other things.’ Luckily I’m with a band that allowed me to do that,” Calio said during a telephone interview from his former home, Hollywood, Calif.

Now that the four-year, self-imposed hiatus is over, Dada is back, recharged for a new tour and its fifth studio album — aptly titled “How To Be Found” — set for a March 2 release. Read the rest of this entry »

In this day and age, finding music that hasn’t been computerized or morphed in the studio is as exciting as receiving a letter in the mail. If it hasn’t been sampled, then it’s been electronically tweaked–not all bad things. Nonetheless, every music fan has a special place in her heart for a straight shot of rock ‘n’ roll, minus the hoots and whistles. Dada is just that, plus a couple of beloved guitar-drum solos–God bless ‘em.

Source: Willamette Week: Portland’s News Weekly

An older, wiser dada

The rock band dada tells one of the best discovery stories this side of movie star Lana Turner’s star-making trip to a Hollywood soda fountain.

The husband of guitarist Michael Gurley’s sister owned a Los Angeles car dealership. That was where Miles Copeland, who was then managing the English rock band the Police, had just bought his first American car, a Chrysler convertible.

Gurley, a 1978 graduate of Saratoga High School, asked to deliver the car to Copeland. And, in a move that would change his life forever, he left a copy of his demo tape for Copeland in the car’s cassette player.

Copeland got in later, listened and fell in love.

After a few phone calls, dada — like the haphazard and spontaneous art movement from which it took its name — began a wild ride. Read the rest of this entry »

dada

When Dada re-formed to tour in 2003 after a three-year layoff, the L.A. trio didn’t “worry about becoming the next huge thing,” singer-guitarist Michael Gurley says. But was the band – whose 1992 album, “Puzzle,” sold more than 500,000 copies and whose single “Dizz Knee Land” cracked the top 10 – prepared to play a bowling alley in Sioux City, Iowa? “We did wonder, ‘What are we doing here?’ ” Gurley concedes. Yet it speaks volumes that the band ventured outside the metropolitan areas where it had guaranteed audiences. Read the rest of this entry »

dada

Dada are back and playing a record 31 shows in 38 days to promote the upcoming release of their new CD, How to be Found (Blue Cave Records), the band’s first studio album in almost five years. After four albums, two label changes — the band released three albums on I.R.S. Records before it went under and a fourth on MCA before MCA was sold and the guys were dropped — and countless miles logged on the road, the guys say they just needed some time off. The members of the L.A.-based trio, whose straight-ahead rock sound and uncluttered harmonies have been compared to The Beatles, got back together last year for a string of shows and recorded a live album for Coach House Records before deciding the time was right for a new album.

- Bill Picture

Source: The San Francisco Examiner