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Do It Again
Dave Matthews Band
Everyday
RCA records
originally printed in C-Ville Vol.13 No. 9

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Oh, he did it, allright.

For this, his fifth record for RCA, Dave Matthews blew off his brand-spankin' new Charlottesville studio, scrapped the tunes recorded there with producer Steve Lillywhite (songs his band had already begun performing onstage) and mosied out to California to write and record an even fresher batch of cuts with Alanis Morisette's super producer, the hit-oozing Glen Ballard. The result is Everyday, a record fans will surely purchase by the truckload. It's a disc that occasionally ventures off of the band's normally beaten track-- sometimes successfully, sometimes not so-- but that essentially sums up the raw truth about Charlottesville's most infamous quintet: they can get the job done in nine days or nine hundred. Formula or no, Dave Matthews Band is a force to be reckoned with now more than ever.

All of DMB's previous studio albums have featured tracks that they've been playing for years. Like the Grateful Dead before them, they tend to work out their songs' nuances onstage-- often for several years-- before deciding on final studio versions. Tunes written at the very outset of Matthews' performing career have been showing up on records as recently as his last, so a new CD of stuff that even the most die-hard Dave-heads haven't heard yet is somewhat unprecedented.

Unfortunately, for me-- more of an admirer than a fan, really-- this translates to something perhaps a bit less memorable than some of their previous work. But if you are a fan of the Dave, you'll love this record and live and die by it like you have all his others. If you're not a big fan, you might not be swayed by what you hear. And if somebody plays you track 7, "Angel," an otherwise lovely ode-to-woman, you'll probably wonder why elements of the chorus seem like they were grafted from one of Aerosmith's crappy modern cheese ballads. (I suspect this might have been Ballard's contribution, "co-writing" much of the material as he did.)

But all the classic Dave-isms are here: ranty-rap sequences, snappy jazzer-pop punched to life by Carter Beauford's lickity-split drumming, swelling Tim Reynolds-esque flourishes (provided by Dave himself cameo-ing on electric guitar for a change), wonton sexual/spiritual imagery sure to make jailbait fans scream and coo as they imagine Dave singing his oft-profane but somehow still beautiful copulatory imagery directly to them-- playing Krishna to their milkmaidens, promising to make love to each in the way they most desire-- and, of course, the kind of pre-apocolyptic hand-holding that's been his brand of musical ministry ever since the day he proclaimed: "eat, drink and be merry-- for tomorrow we die."

It's a fun, tight-sounding record with alot of varied textures, a very new-world humanist vibe reinforced by the "jazzy" sensibilities of his all-star band, and more classic Matthews poetry strewn throughout. Favorite moments for me: Track 2-- "When the world ends/ we'll be burning one." (--A gratuitous reefer reverence, for you "unhip" types.) Track 6-- "If I had it all, I'd fuck it up." And the entirety of "What You Are," which bears some of the trademark dark fusion musical daring of here-absent sideman and seminal Charlottesville influence Tim Reynolds' old TR3 work, while lyrically exploring what must be for them a very bizarre reality when not onstage: fan expectations of superior wisdom from a bunch of essentially normal dudes-- albeit very rich and creative dudes who had no problem putting together in almost no time at all what will undoubtedly be their greatest success yet.

There are a few musical transitions that sound kind of Scotch-taped together here, and Ballard's contribution, besides a high-quality recording, is to occasionally homogenize their sound by adding elements found in so many other "pop hits," (boo) but all in all, Everyday demonstrates that Dave and his mid-Atlantic crew are capable of almost anything now, and pretty much incapable of screwing it up. This record could have totally sucked, but it doesn't. It's solid, diverse, and full of interesting musical and imaginational motiffs-- the kind of stuff that DMB has always been famous for-- and it's clear that for the time being at least, the sky is still the limit. Whatever happens, Dave, just keep doing it.

--Cripsy Duck ........................................................................................... up