Dirty Money and Filthy Love

The Dalloways get a little dirty on their new EP release Dirty Money and Filthy Love. With talk of secret skins, filthy love, Godlessness, tramps, ice queens and ‘using it before you lose it’ all woven into catchier more danceable tracts than those of their debut album Penalty Crusade, the Dalloways have reinvented themselves into a moodier, grittier brand of Brit-pop music with a hint of romance.

Dirty suits the Dalloways.

Although they sing about filthy love, the Dalloways music is by no means filthy. Rather its moody, lush, textured and a melodically driven machine that has you singing along, tapping your feet and even clapping your hands in Me and Thomas Hardy. These are the kinds of songs that keep playing in your head long after the CD has stopped spinning.

Lyrically the Dalloways don’t disappoint with their creative story-telling, literary references to Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles in Me and Thomas Hardy, mature themes, moodiness, romantic undertones and sound bites from that classic 1960’s gothic soap Dark Shadows in Didn’t Have the Time.

I love lyrics that make me contemplate their meaning as Cerro Coso Community College creative writing professor and Dalloways front man Gerhard Enns’ lyrics always do. But I have to tell you he had me stumped for a while with the Dark Shadows sound clips. I recognized the actor’s voices and even the scene, but I couldn’t remember their names or the name of the show. It plagued me so I had to search it out on the Internet! A classic soap opera as a metaphor for life, clever.

Dalloways keyboardist Cortnie Cleary co-wrote I Love You Regardless and Didn’t Have the Time and is more present on this EP with her moody vocals proving she’s more than just the Dalloways hot babe.

I’ve been listening to Dirty Money and Filthy Love non-stop since I received my copy of the Dalloways new EP its one of those pieces of music that you just can’t let go of.

Get your copy of Dirty Money and Filthy Love at CD Baby today!

EP Track list:

1. Dirty Money and Filthy Love
2. Me and Thomas Hardy
3. Let’s Climb the Staircase
4. I Love You Regardless
5. Didn’t Have the Time

The Dalloways hope to release their full-length album Distant Fairs later this summer, which is sure to be a musical masterpiece if Dirty Money and Filthy Love is a sample of what’s yet to come. No matter what the Dalloways turn out next, I’ll love them regardless.

Read the ABC23 article and watch the video about the Dalloways, Lost Ocean and other bands creative methods of marketing their music.

Watch Cortnie Cleary’s youtube after school special.



Catch up with the Dalloways on myspace.

*******
Join the Dalloways at their BIG CD RELEASE PARTY Saturday, February 9, 2008 at Sandrini’s in downtown Bakersfield, 9:30 PM, Cost: $5.00. Featuring an incredible line up of: The Sleepover Disaster, The Filthies, a Hectic Films screening of the new Dalloways video and the Dalloways backed by Matt Munoz of Mento Buru on sax, Melissa of Near Miss Mallet and Mystic Red on backing vocals.

Don’t miss out on the fun, it’s going to be a great night of music!!

Labels: ABC 23, Brit Pop, Cortnie Cleary, Dirty Money and Filthy Love, Dream Pop, Gerhard Enns, Hectic Films, Mento Buru, Music, Mystic Red, Near Miss Mallet, pop, The Dalloways, The Filthies

  posted by Matildakay at 1:31 PM 1 comments

A Girls night out with Darren Hayes at the Roxy
Recently, chingpea and I traveled to Hollywood for a girl’s night out with Darren Hayes at the famous Roxy nightclub.



I don’t know what it is about Hollywood, perhaps it’s the gritty underbelly night life, or the magical feeling that celebrities frequent those clubs, those restaurants, or the realization that “this is where the movies are made,” the giant building size movie billboards, or maybe it’s the stars on the sidewalks, but I love exploring Hollywood. And I haven’t done a lot of Hollywood exploring in my life. My first real Hollywood experience was the night I blew my knee out after seeing the play Trainspotting. Since then I’ve only ventured to Hollywood a few times. I saw World Wide Spies at the Viper Room, I’ve eaten at Astro Burger and Mel’s Drive Thru and I’ve walked around Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. So, I was very excited to see my favorite pop star and the Roxy all on the same night.





Apparently everyone else in the world had the same idea of going out in Hollywood that night. The Los Angeles Film Festival was in full fanfare at the Hollywood Bowl, Ratatouille was premiering at the Kodak Theatre with some red carpet action, Darren Hayes was at the Roxy, Prince was at the Roosevelt Hotel for his seven gig stay, and there were many other events going on as well. What did all of these Hollywood events have to do with two Smalltown girls on a mission to see Darren Hayes?

Traffic. Detours. And Parking.

We navigated through constipated traffic and Hollywood detours in a giant truck we weren’t used to driving as we tried to get to the Roxy on Sunset. Let me just say chingpea is the master of LA traffic! I would have had a nervous breakdown driving that truck in that traffic. With all the detours, we couldn’t figure out how to get back to Sunset. So we asked a man on one of the side streets and he said, “go up to the corner, 'Roger-it' and that street will take you to Sunset, the Roxy will just be a little ways down from there,” turned out he was a regular at the Roxy. I was glad that chingpea was driving, because I had no idea what 'Roger-it' meant!

Once we found the Roxy, we had to find parking. The first public parking lot we tried charged thirty dollars to park! We kept driving until we found one under ten dollars and luckily it was within walking distance of the Roxy. Outside the Roxy, we waited in a line that was at least three blocks long and grew the longer we waited.

So did my excitement…

Unlike John Mayer’s concert where I fell under his gravitational spell, I’ve been in LOVE with Darren Hayes and his music for the past eight years. I’ll admit that I’ve been in love to the point of musical pop star obsession. His music has affected me that much. Not only was I about to see a rare Darren Hayes U.S. performance, (he hasn’t toured in the U.S. since 2000) but it was also chingpea’s Darren Hayes initiation. I wondered if she would love him as much as I did?

Soon the line started moving and we were finally inside the famous Roxy nightclub. It was really dark inside the Roxy! We crowded in as close as we could to the stage and waited with hundreds of fans all in love with Darren Hayes for what was to be an amazing show.

There were two opening acts: Julien and Tempo Shark. Both were a perfect combination of music to compliment Darren Hayes. Julien was an acoustic duo with a beautiful tenor voice whose music I really enjoyed.



And Tempo Shark was an electro-pop band whose lead singer was flirty, and their music made you want to dance.





The excitement in the crowd began to spark after Tempo Shark left the stage. The vibe was infectious and soon the crowd began to chant Darren’s name. When Darren Hayes took the stage, it was like he had never been gone. Darren wrote about the show on his blog:

“At first, the chanting of my name and the screaming I honestly thought must have been for something else. I did not expect such a vibe and it fueled a show that the band and crew were calling the best on the tour.”

I was so glad to be there with chingpea, among those people and Darren Hayes, at the Roxy, in that magical moment. It was surreal.





Darren performed an electric energized set that included old Savage Garden favorites: I Want You, Carry on Dancing and an acoustic version of I Don’t Know You Anymore. The crowd sang along to I Don’t Know You Anymore drowning Darren out until he stopped singing and listened to the sea of voices for a few lines. It was an incredible moment. So personal. So intimate.




Carry on Dancing - (Lighting is dark, but sound quality is good)

He did not perform the expected Savage Garden number one hits, focusing instead on the new music from his upcoming album This Delicate Thing We’ve Made including: On the Verge of Something Wonderful, Who Would Have Thought, Step into the Light and How to Build a Time Machine. How to Build a Time Machine is an amazing song! Wouldn't we all like to build a time machine and go back in time and bring back only the joy in our lives. I know I would.

He seemed to be more focused on the future than the past both musically and personally. His new music, like his new life, and even the way he performed/reworked his old music, had an infectious sincere happy vibe that made you believe all was right with the world.




How to Build a Time Machine - Darren tells a story at beginning of video.(Lighting is dark, but sound quality is good)

He may not have performed some of my old favorite Savage Garden hits, but Darren did perform some of my favorite songs from his Tension and the Spark album, which I listen to constantly, including: Unlovable and I Like the Way. Unlovable was amazing live!



Surprisingly he also performed a dead-on cover of Prince’s Baby I’m a Star, which was out of this world. He ended it with his own Pop!ular and joked about “Bringing Sexy Back.”



Darren came back on stage at the end of the night to perform Void and Insatiable as a double encore, both were incredible live, and he left us all wanting more… especially this Smalltown girl.

He also joked about the reasons he hadn’t performed in the U.S. in seven years stating:

“I got Kelly Clarksoned. I put out two albums that I really believed in which got buried by a big, bad record label. I spent some time finding myself, and I got married to my boyfriend. You can do that in England!”

The crowd screamed and cheered louder and was Truly Madly Crazy for him. His long absence was forgiven.

Darren Hayes ROCKED the Roxy!

At the end of the show, as chingpea and I ventured out onto Sunset again, I realized that the intimate, up close and personal setting of the Roxy was the only way to see Darren Hayes perform. He had shared something special with us, part of himself, that wouldn’t have happened in a much larger venue. And I was even more in love with him and his music than before.

After such a great night of music... we rode Darren's vibe out into the night to conquer L.A. traffic again in the giant truck. As we drove down Sunset past the Ivy we saw about twenty Paparrazi photographing someone in a SUV parked outside. The camera flashes sparkled in the night like fireworks but we couldn't see which celebrity they were stalking. It was my first Paparrazi sighting. It was Hollywood.

Photos/videos by: chingpea

Labels: Bakersfield, Darren Hayes, Hollywood, LA Film Festival, Music, paparrazi, pop, Prince, Ratatouille, Smalltown Girls, The Roxy

  posted by Matildakay at 7:03 PM 2 comments