“Dart for My Sweetheart”
from the album Derdang Derdang
2006
iTunes
MP3 – “Dart for My Sweetheart” [right-click/save-as]
There’s a palpable humidity to London’s Archie Bronson Outfit. Their sophomore album Derdang Derdang is a freewheeling, carnal ride through fat cherry lips and love’s bloodied claws. “There is this underlying sex in there,” admits singerguitarist Sam Windett. “We didn’t want to make it too heavy so we kept some lighter moments but it’s still about the dark and hidden path of relationships.”
The trio is comprised of Windett, bassist Dog Hobday and drummer Arp Cleveland, who writes all the lyrics. What you won’t find is anyone named Archie Bronson. Windett explains, “It comes from a very old Buffalo Bill comic book a friend gave me years ago. Archie Bronson is a character in one of the stories and he had an outfit of ruffians and cowboys. I saw it and a name was born. People thought we were a jazz band for a while. It’s not really a classic rock name.”
While their 2004 debut was produced by the Kills’ Jamie Hince, they traveled to Nashville to record the follow-up with Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Modest Mouse) at Alex the Great, a studio built by the MC5’s Wayne Kramer. Some of the MC5’s brutal spirit permeates the new songs, which also recalls elements of the Black Keys and Public Image Ltd. ABO is a rough cascade that pours out with a desperate howl, the modern descendent of ’60s psych-rockers that tore it up at the Fillmore East.
“We all enjoy records where you can hear the atmosphere around them — field recordings and old blues records,” says Windett. “The bones of the songs were recorded live. We gradually started out in different corners with lots of foam around us, protecting each individual sound. Then, we suddenly got rid of all the foam and moved in to a couple of meters of each other. I think it’s kind of important for us to record like that.”
Derdang Derdangexpands their palette with “bits of clarinet, chorale-y things and gospel-y stuff.” As far as the title’s concerned, Windett comments, “It doesn’t really mean anything. It’s an onomatopoeia for guitar strings, strumming and going ‘derdang, derdang.’ Maybe it’ll become a household expression for geek girls. [laughs] We wanted a name people could query over and bring their own meanings to. Some people think it sounds quite German. I quite like names like that. I’ve always loved that [Sonic Youth] record Goo. It can mean something to the band but it’s one of those words that quite nonsensical.”
Change is the only constant in their sound, something Windett says will continue. “We talk about never repeating ourselves, never doing the same album twice. It’s always sad when bands do that. It’s always kind of evolved but I don’t know where it’s going. It’s more interesting to go to one extreme or another rather than do the same thing again.”