The Mercury Lounge (Venue Partner)
217 E Houston St
212.260.4700
This event has passed.
- When
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Tuesday July 28, 2009 (7pm)
- Where
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Directions: F, JMZ at Essex and Delancey or F, V at 2nd Ave
- Price
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$10.00
- Links
Throughout 2009, Dailey will be digitally releasing EPs every three months, all collecting songs he’s recently written. “After you’re done, you realize, ‘Oh! That’s what it’s about,” explains Dailey, so each installment of Torrent reflects a certain theme or mood. The first, Fashion Of Distraction, was largely written under the influence of the sounds of the '60s and early '70s, particularly the Byrds, so it's fitting that Roger McGuinn guests as a guitarist/vocalist on "Peace of Mind," a song whose lyrics are very much rooted in 21st century topical concerns and timeless emotional introspection. Another EP, By the Blue Hills, will follow in the spring and is a collection of songs saluting Boston and Will’s musical family there, featuring cameos from Boston luminaries and Dailey friends Kay Hanley (Letters to Cleo), Tanya Donelly (Belly, Throwing Muses), Elliott Easton (The Cars), Tim Brennan (Dropkick Murphys) and local fixtures Duke Levine and Sean Staples. These two EPs will then be paired as physical copies, complete with extras and presented in CODE, a high-resolution audio standard pioneered by T Bone Burnett.
No other artist – not Radiohead, not Nine Inch Nails, not Prince – has taken such full advantage of all the possibilities for releasing music in this rapidly-shifting music business as Will Dailey does with Torrent. “We’re told that it’s a new day and that the restraints are off and the music business paradigm is changing,” says Will, “and if you’re Trent Reznor or Radiohead, that might very well be true. But most of us are still grappling with the machine and searching for ways to make it work for us.” These thoughts led Dailey to the constantly evolving Torrent, which isn’t merely an innovative project – one that redefines and reconfigures what an album is in the 21st century – but an artistically fulfilling endeavor, too. “I’m happiest when I’m writing songs, recording them and performing them,” says Dailey, and Torrent grants listeners a window into this private world. Unlike a typical album – which can take upwards of two years to record and release – Torrent allows him to get his music out to listeners with an immediacy unheard of even in independent rock, something that Dailey, as a veteran of Boston’s vibrant rock scene, is intimately familiar with. Indeed, Torrent reconnects with his beginnings as a musician, when he had to get his music out anyway he could.
There’s no denying this ongoing project is a new way of getting his music out there, something that’s necessary in this day and age – “I don’t want to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic,” jokes Dailey, “I want to make a really strong raft, get people on it and start paddling” – but what really matters are the songs themselves, how Dailey speaks to our troubled times on “Peace of Mind,” how he revives the jangle of the Byrds with layers of 12- and six-strings on “So Many Wrong Ways,” how “Keep You a Mystery” shuffles along on a loping country-beat, how “Never Be Your Baby” surges on its soaring chorus, how “Allston” ends it all on a beautifully moody note. This is timeless music that speaks to the soul, just like the best singer/songwriters always do.
