Dallas Don’t join such fine company as Agness Pike, Junkie Brush and The Cellar Family as the newest member of Oxford’s oddball punk pack with this, their second demo. ‘Lesson’ has the drive and melodic undertones of early Idlewild (before they turned shit) and singer Niall actually sounds a bit like a harsh and whiskey’d-up Roddy Woomble, while ‘The Runner’ has Surfer Rosa’s loud-quiet-loud dynamics, wiry, amelodic guitar leads and damaged male protagonist lyrics.
‘The Ballad of Phoebe Henderson’, on the other hand, has all the serrated edge and energy of Shellac fronted by Andy Falkous – before going a bit Idlewild again. On ‘Fife for Life’ the band take a slightly left-field turn into contemporary indie jangle-pop, full of self-depreciating, wordy verses that seem destined to become a sing-along at some open mic session at a lock-in. It’s a mixed bag of charming turns of phrase and cloying attempts at charming turns of phrase but it’s a pleasantly controlled end to the demo and at the very least shows the range that Dallas Don’t are clearly capable of.
Not exactly revolutionary stuff, then – Dallas Don’t are pretty much the sum of their (excellent) influences at this point – but it’s good to know that they’re about and kicking up a stink in our fair city. This is a great starting point for this young band – now let’s hope that Dallas do become as weird and noisy as I expect they can become.