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.

How To Be Found

Dada, after four albums for major labels, will release its new record, How to Be Found, March 2 on the group’s own imprint. “It didn’t take long for us to realize after we got back together that, yeah, this is still fun,” says Gurley, whose band plays Friday night at the Whisky. “We know most labels are going to put their efforts into 21-year-olds … but we also know we have a fan base.” That base won’t be disappointed by the new album; Gurley and collaborator Joie Calio continue to set the bar high for harmonies (take note, 21-year-olds). “We’ve always tried to create harmonies that are a little bit different,” Gurley says, “but I was raised on pop radio…. When it’s done, if it sounds like something you heard when you were 9 years old, that’s cool.”

- Kevin Bronson

Source: Los Angeles Times