Overview
Squirrel Flower
Fly off the handle bohemiennes~ the Squirrel Flower Express is coming your way. Ella Williams returns for her first full band headlining tour in 2 years!!
Dari Bay
Led by Zachary James, Burlington, Vermont-based musician, Dari Bay is the result of a twisted home recording project gone horribly right. His eccentric lo-fi sound evolved into more grounded (if still slightly surreal) expressions by the time of Longest Day of the Year, a 2023 album that found Dari Bay’s experimental spirit folding into deceptively neutral, unassuming tunes. Double Double Whammy is pleased to be teaming up with Dari Bay, beginning with the expanded reissue of Longest Day of the Year (originally a self-released and minimally distributed affair) in 2026.
“I remember working on this album and thinking it was a big vibe shift from other music I had made previously, and being excited by that,” James reflects. “After the release we were able to do some real fun scrappy touring and met a bunch of good people in the process. It hasn’t been very long since Longest Day was released but a fair amount has changed, maybe partially thanks to the album? With the reissue it’s a cool opportunity to extend the party a bit. On the album there’s a theme of staying at a party too long so it’s kinda perfect.”
The more time passes, the clearer it becomes that the party in question exists on a timeline of its own. There’s both ageless comfort and time-bending confusion in the sunset-colored guitar tones of album opener “Wait For You,” and in the unfussy amble of “Same Old Bumpy Road.” Hints of recognizable ‘90s alt-rock achiness or twangy slowcore show up here and there, but closer listening reveals how winding and non-linear these seemingly stripped-down songs actually are. “Shy of a Nurse” wraps its heart-rending hooks in a tangle of feedback, and “Walk On Down” wanders through a lonely dust storm of jangling acoustic guitars and graceful vocal harmonies before opening up into an unexpected clearing of bells and key-changing countermelodies. This reissue includes the addition of one previously unreleased track, “Interstate.” Recorded before the sessions for LDotY, “Interstate” represents evidence of the transition from Dari Bay’s earlier, noisier material into the more fine-tuned songcraft of the album.
James says, “‘Interstate’ is sort of a prototype for Longest Day Of The Year. I think it was one of my first attempts at writing pop-leaning music that felt somewhat successful. And lyrically I suppose it fits the theme of the album. It’s a love song that’s also a car song.”
The unpredictable twisting of guitar tones, lyrical phrases, and feeling itself puts Dari Bay in a lineage of idiosyncratic songwriters that reaches from Judee Sill and Alex Chilton through to Elliott Smith and Liz Phair, right up to present-day boundary-bending contemporaries. The songs invite everyone in with a friendly smile, but make no promises as to where they’ll take us after that. Throughout Longest Day of the Year, James leans into listener expectations as often as he completely disregards them.
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