Release Radar: Dot Dash '16 Again'
The Washington DC veterans are back with a retrospective covering their entire discography.
Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to 16 Again by Washington DC-based Dot Dash
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What do you get when you mix scene vets from such bands as Julie Ocean, Swervedriver, and Youth Brigade?
You get DC Band (and On Repeat favorites) Dot Dash. And you get a sublime mix of jangle pop. post punk, and a dash of mod as part of the bargain.
The band have just dropped a new release titled 16 Again. If the band is new to you, this is the perfect place to start.
The record is named after a Buzzcocks song, and because they’re releasing 16 songs…again (heh). At any rate, 16 Again is 15 tracks spanning their previous seven records1, and one cover (Television Personalities’ ‘Jackanory Stories’ ). It’s part retrospective and part greatest hits…so far. It’s also a great summation of their decade at one of the best indie labels in the business, Canada’s The Beautiful Music.
This is also the first time the band has had a release issued on vinyl, courtesy of another label doing great things, South Wales’ Country Mile Records, home of other greats like Burning Ferns.
“Washington DC group Dot Dash, who have come to play as idealized and energized a form of power pop as one could imagine, didn’t grow up in the ’60s; their musical touchstones are in the new wave era: so, more the Jam than the Who, Haircut 100 rather than the Kinks. Their iconic labels are more likely to be Postcard, Rough Trade and Sarah than Immediate, Pye or Deram. While they may have started out in thrall to Wire, from whom they took their name, their progress has been towards crystalline tunefulness. “
~Ira Robbins
Dot Dash is a band that’s very good at what they do, and what they do is deliver commercial-grade jangle pop. Every track here is a winner because, well, that’s really all they do. Rattling of favorites is easy; winnowing it down to just 15 for this record must’ve been really hard.
Released last November, Madman in the Rain was a late entry to my 2022 AOTY list. Were this not a retrospective, 16 Again would likely do the same come next month.
In that earlier write-up, I noted one of my favorite lines comes from the track ‘Space Junk, Satellites’ where frontman Terry Banks sings It’s no different/but it’s not the same. He’s right. Dot Dash is standing on a LOT of shoulders here, but they’ve taken that gumbo and made a sound all their own.
And Dot Dash’s sound is definitely unique. 16 Again has pop tracks like Airwaves and The Color and the Sound, power pop-y tracks like The Sound in Shells, and harder-edged songs like Flowers.
For a band that likes to say they’ve had no hits, there’s a lot to love here. Check it out. By the end, you just might have a new favorite song —or two.
Listen:
Dot Dash | 16 Again, 2023
Click the record to listen on the platform of your choice.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this record!
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
spark>flame>ember>ash (released in 2011), Winter Garden Light (2012), Half-Remembered Dream (2013) in Earthquakes & Tidal Waves (2015), Searchlights (2016), Proto Retro (2018), and Madman in the Rain (2022).
My kind of power pop album - no track less than 2:00, the longest track is 3:19. No misdirected intros! No self-indulgent solos!
Ok, so I listened on Spotify and as soon as "16 Again" finished I went to Bandcamp and demanded they take my money and send me an LP. Thanks, Kevin, really good call.