Ten Albums: Number 4 - Dada - Puzzle

Ten Albums: Number 4 - Dada - Puzzle

A friend tagged me in one of those annoying, yet fun, Facebook challenges to post 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste. One record a day for ten days. No explanation, no review, just the cover.

Yeah, I can't do that without an explanation. Plus, it gives me something to write about. So, here, over the next ten days will be my ten albums followed by a bunch of words.

Dada - Puzzle

I've never been to Disneyland. In all the times I've been to Southern California, mostly for work, I've only ever been to Anaheim once, and that was to see the Ducks play. Not the kid Ducks. The professional ones. 

The song Dizz Knee Land (see how they did that so WDC wouldn't sue them) I've heard thousands of times, played the riff on guitar a thousand times, been in someone's living room with Mike Gurley, the singer and guitar player from Dada, accompanied by my brother on guitar, and sang along to Dizz Knee Land with the forty others squeezed into the house party. I've made every band I've been in learn Dada songs. I've sat at Gamekeepers with my brother and the three guys from Dada after they played across the street at the Park West. I learned how to play Surround in college because the girl I liked loved the song and wanted me to play it for her. I still have the first Dada concert t-shirt I bought, the green one with the dirty song lyric on the back. I've seen Dada live more than any band except for one. And I can't for the live of me figure out why this band wasn't more successful.

My brother had this CD (are you getting tired yet of hearing how my brother shaped my musical tastes? Don't worry, it's my sister's turn soon). Back then my car only had a tape deck, so I put pretty much every CD we had on tape. I didn't listen to this much until one day, when I was mowing the lawn, I wanted something new to listen to. So I popped the Puzzle tape I'd made into my Magnavox Tape player (sorry, the Sony Walkman was too expensive) and listened as I cut the grass.

Power. Pop. Perfection. A three piece band, highly melodic, vocal harmonies throughout, face melting guitar solos. Radio ready singles. No songs to skip. My favorites are the opener, Dorina, Dizz Knee Land, Dim, and Moon, the angsty track that builds up to a blazing solo that ends the album.

Why don't more people know about dada? Why have their five studio albums not sold better? 

Dada fans are pretty nuts and very loyal. Going to a Dada show is like a fan reunion where everyone knows and recognizes each other. My brother knows most of them. They know my brother. He did some photography work for them, including for the Live: Official Bootleg (vol 1) CD. One of his shots also ended up on a t-shirt.

Photo by Dave Smolarek, signatures by Joie Calio, Phil Leavitt, and Michael Gurley

Dada isn't touring right now. They started recording new material in 2011 but stopped. Mike Gurley has been battling carpal tunnel syndrome for 25 years and he's had to adjust how he plays and during shows and dunking his hands and arms in buckets of ice kept near the stage.  We're all hopeful something new happens. Until then I keep Puzzle on regular rotation.