THE DEAD DAISIES – The Dead Daisies

Sometimes it’s a great thing being a subscriber to music magazines. Not only for great reading, but also when bands allow them to put whole albums with the magazines to their readers. Most of the times, I must admit, I don’t find anything worthwhile on there, but sometimes the odd album comes along that knocks me off my feet. The Dead Daisies debut album is one of those albums. When I saw the record with the mag, I instantly reacted to the name of the band – The Dead Daisies! What kind of useless name is that, I asked myself. They probably play some boring alternative crap, I thought next. But hey, the album comes free so I guess a listen, at least, was in order. It took one listen for me to once again realize that you should never judge a band by their name. So who are they then? Well, the band is made up by a bunch of members from other bands so I guess people will call this a supergroup – fair, I guess. The band was formed by former INXS lead singer Jon Stevens and guitar player David Lowy (Red Phoenix) and guitarist  Richard Fortus, drummer Frank Ferrer and keyboard player Dizzy Reed all of Guns N Roses and bassist Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy) were added to the line up. Since then, however, the band has changed members quite a bit and drummers such as Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, S.U.N.) and  Alex Carapetis (Jimmy Barnes, Nine Inch Nails) has been in and out of the band. Today new members are bass player Darryl Jones (Rolling Stones) and drummer Charley Drayton (The Cult).

Since their start in 2012, they haven’t only changed a lot of members (read drummers…), but also recorded a bunch of songs. Apart from this, their debut album, they have also released the E.P. Man Overboard and the singles “Lock ‘n’ Load” and “Washington”, in other words 2012 and 2013 has been some busy years for the boys. Having not heard the E.P. (all the songs on it is on this album as well), the album is full of classic hard rock with melodies and groove to die for. Like opener “It’s Gonna Take Time”, a great rocker with a catchy refrain. I hear similarities to Buckcherry in the verses, but maybe that’s just me. Single “Lock ‘n’ Load” is just awesome, swings with a groove from hell and features Slash on the guitar, the other single “Washington” has those sticky melodies that you just can’t fight, “Yeah Yeah Yeah” (love that title!) is an acoustic based groover with an intense hook and “Yesterday” is a ballad, the bluesier kind with a big Stones feel. “Writing On The Wall” starts out as an acoustic based pop song, but when it comes to an end, it has already changed into a rocker – brilliant. “Bible Row” is a swinging southern rocker and “Tomorrow” is very poppy with a very much contagious hook. And like this, it keeps on going, song after song and to be honest, I can’t find anything on here that even borders to half bad.

That the musicians in this band are all professionals all the way goes without saying, really, but that doesn’t mean that they are terrific song writers just because. Well, it turns out that they are, because this is a fantastic rock album. The sound is catchy, but still rootsy and raw and even though somewhat commercial at times, it never sounds cheesy and I imagine this band will totally kill live. Some festival gigs during the summer of 2014 wouldn’t hurt one bit. Hallo, Sweden Rock Festival, do you hear me?

Jon Wilmenius (9/10)

Tracklist:

01. It’s Gonna Take Time
02. Lock ‘N’ Load
03. Washington
04. Yeah Yeah Yeah
05. Yesterday
06. Writing On The Wall
07. Miles In Front Of Me
08. Bible Row
09. Man Overboard
10. Tomorrow
11. Can’t Fight This Feeling
12. Talk To Me

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