Dawes co-headlining Iowa City show with Bahamas

If you want to know how the new Dawes album, “Misadventures of Doomscroller,” is different from the band’s previous seven albums, think about comparing Frank Zappa to the Rolling Stones or R.E.M.

“I think so much, especially with our kind of music, our scene, there’s all this talk of restraint and there’s all this talk of economy,” Dawes singer/guitarist and main songwriter Taylor Goldsmith said in a midsummer phone interview.

“Sometimes you’ll hear these records by these monster guitar players or monster musicians, and there’s no evidence of that. While I really applaud that when the song calls for that, because I think that’s the height of taste, I also think when you can, cut loose — I want to hear it.”

Dawes doesn’t sound like the Rolling Stones or R.E.M. — and no one has ever sounded quite like Zappa. But especially like R.E.M. — a band Goldsmith considers a major influence — Dawes has kept songs concise on recording and saved the soloing and improvisation for the live shows.

But when the pandemic hit, Goldsmith and his bandmates — drummer and brother Griffin Goldsmith, bassist Wylie Gelber and keyboardist Lee Pardini — decided for “Misadventures of Doomscroller” to throw out their rule book and take musical liberties they had always eschewed on earlier albums.

“I think a big part of it was just the pandemic shutting everything down and us feeling like who knows if tours will ever come back. If that’s the case, let’s make sure to make the music on our terms,” Goldsmith said. “So we felt we should start embracing this part of us that we maybe felt like we weren’t allowed to express (on studio albums).”

Then there was also the Zappa factor.

“I think a big discovery for me right before we recorded this album was Frank Zappa, and that, I think was a big catalyst for making this possible in my own brain,” Goldsmith said. “I felt like I was given permission, not that I’m a flashy guitarist, but I feel like so much of a Dawes record (when it came to) guitar playing was how do you do just enough and move on?

“Then in listening to Zappa, oh, he’s doing everything he wants and everything he can and he’s really exploring the instrument and experimenting himself and it’s so fun. He’s taking excellence to the extent that he’s capable.

“Now it’s like instead of doing the least amount possible to see if it works, let’s do the most amount possible and see if it still works,” he said.

The seven songs on “Misadventures of Doomscroller” work well indeed.

The album opens emphatically with the near-10-minute opus “Someone Else’s Cafe/Doomscroller Tries To Relax.” Greeting the listener with a snazzy chiming guitar hook, the song features an instrumental segment that moves from jazz-tinged edginess into a fluid guitar solo that introduces the downright pretty second half of the track. Far from feeling jammy, every note of “Someone Else’s Cafe/Doomscroller Tries To Relax” feels intentional and integral to a song that earns its generous length.

The same can be said of other lengthy songs: “Everything Is Permanent” (which features an airy and elegant Pink Floyd-esque guitar solo); “Ghost in the Machine” (where the tumbling beats played by Griffin Goldsmith and producer Jonathan Wilson give this track a rocking tension that’s a new stylistic wrinkle for Dawes); and “The Sound That No One Made/Doomscroller Sunrise” (whose guitar leads and solos truly elevate the track).

Dawes certainly had built up enough experience playing together and exploring various sonic directions to make good on the ambitious plans for “Misadventures of Doomscroller.”

Origins

Dawes grew out of the post-punk-leaning band Simon Dawes after the 2007 departure of Goldsmith’s songwriting partner, Blake Mills. As Dawes, the group pivoted to its familiar folk-rock sound with its 2009 debut album “North Hills.”

The band continued to develop its sound over the next three albums, before taking an adventurous sonic turn on the 2016 album “We’re All Gonna Die.” With Mills producing, the band incorporated a variety of synthesizers and other synthetic elements into the songs, bringing more of an edgy pop-rock accent to the songs without losing the group’s signature folk-pop sound. The 2018 album, “Passwords,” continued in a similar vein before the band returned to a more organic sound on the 2020 album “Good Luck With Whatever.”

In Iowa City

Dawes isn’t playing things safe on tour, and on Monday night, Sept. 19, 2022, Dawes is teaming up with Bahamas to co-headline a concert at the Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City.

“We wanted to go the other route and really honor this new album that we made, really focus on that, and in some cases that might mean only four or five songs for the whole set,” Goldsmith said, knowing this will be a risk.

“At the end of the day, I think that’s a good thing. I’d rather upset some people and then excite some (other) people than just have everyone say, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of them and I recognize that song and that was pleasant’ and moving on.’ I’d rather create a memory for better or for worse.”