The Dalloways? California dreampop at its finest. Think Belle and Sebastian meets The Doves meets The Smiths, and you're halfway to understanding these sometimes moody, often upbeat dreamers. Penalty Crusade, the group's latest LP, has consistently ranked at the top of the CD Baby editor’s picks for California Pop and Brit Pop. Spin Zone music critic Danielle Belton comments: "[The Dalloways] reach for Brit Pop and manage to find the sweet ether where California coolness ends and the emotional reverb of '80s British rockers begins." The Dalloways will hit the road in May on the first leg of their Penalty Crusade tour. Highlights will include Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, and numerous other urban centers of the West. For more band information, including the new Japanese distribution deal, visit www.dalloways.com.

The Planet of Sound Review

So I finally got tired of pondering what a "Brit Pop" band from Central California could possibly sound like and I popped [The Dalloways'] new CD into my CD player and pressed play. I then picked up a book and began to read as I normally do when listening to something for the first time. Only problem is I never got to read one word. The minute I started listening to this CD it was like I had been sent back to the mid to late 80's. This was a time when almost every band I seemed to like had a moody laid back sound, and they all sounded like the Beatles when they talked.

The first artist who came to mind immediately was Morrissey. However Gerhard Enns' sweet way of strumming the guitar reminded me oh so much of Robert Smith's style. How can you go wrong with a band who has the elements of two of the best singer songwriters of the 80's Brit Invasion? ...

[W]hat is going to set the songs on this album apart and give them the strength to stand by their own merits is the song writing, the lyrics. ... The Dalloways in a way are story tellers. Every song paints a different picture and every picture as they say is worth a thousand words. They are influenced by everything around them and you can hear this in their music. It makes this album an album...worth listening to. The musical arrangements are rich and are so beautifully put together that I hear something new every time I listen.

I highly recommend [Penalty Crusade].

What's New with The Dalloways?

The Dalloways have proven that you don't have to be from the U.K. to produce a good melodic pop tune with lyrics that touch the soul.

With top British influences such as The Smiths and Prefab Sprout, The Dalloways have definitely managed to create a style that includes both an atmospheric collage of musical elements and great songwriting.

I sat down with: Gerhard (lead vocals), Nico Rhodes (synthesizers), Matt Wall (bass), Aaron Wall (drums) and Ricky Gonzales (guitar) to discuss their new album, The Penalty Crusade and more in this exclusive S & S interview with, The Dalloways.

Raina: What influenced the songwriting on The Penalty Crusade?

Gerhard: Situations, other people and what they go through. Other times they're about fictional characters that I come up with, relationships and what not. Basically, my songs are influenced by fiction. Alot of fiction.

Raina: As a songwriter, who inspires you?

Gerhard: Oh gosh, that's a big question! The bands that I listened to in my formative years seemed to be all British for some reason. Some are pretty obscure now. But let's see... The Smiths is an obvious big one, Dream Academy... There are so many. ...

Raina: How would you describe The Penalty Crusade?

Aaron: Well, it's very introspective and melodic with alot of hidden musical elements. It's like a movie. You watch it the first time and figure out the plot but then you watch it again and you see things you didn't see the first time. With Penalty Crusade, you'll listen to it on your headphones and everytime you hear it you'll notice something you didn't notice the first time. ...

Raina: What's next for The Dalloways?

Gerhard: A big album! A big tour! Fame and Fortune! (band laughs) Hopefully bigger shows! We have become a newly revised and musically stronger band through this past year. We used to be a four piece but now we're a five piece. Nico and Ricky have added a different feel to the band than we used to have.

Nico: Let me just say that if anyone hasn't seen us recently, then you haven't seen us. It's not the same band at all.

Raina: Now on your website you've mentioned Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout ...

Gerhard: Ah man, Paddy is a HUGE influence! I never mentioned Paddy or Prefab Sprout because nobody seems to remember them but I'm so thankful that you did! I can't stop listening to them. ...

For the full interview, visit www.soulsandsounds.com.

The Dalloways' New Crusade

Fans of Coldplay, Travis, New Order, Belle and Sebastian, Kings of Convenience, The Red Housepainters, The Smiths, The Divine Comedy, The Doves, and Grandaddy among others, will appreciate Dalloways music.

Penalty Crusade, the group’s latest and greatest LP, is full of rich and varied musical landscapes. Track to track, the listener moves through powerfully quiet moments like "Elected to Tell You" and the title track, to silky smooth, synth-laden tunes like “Cotty’s House” (reminiscent of Flaming Lips), and finally to big crescendo flashes of pretty distortions and delays like "Marriage Arranged” and “Clarissa, Dear”.

The Dalloways are storytellers, and underlying the beauty of the sounds are strong narratives full of characters attempting to find their own ways for themselves: a down-and-out Olympic figure skater seeking lost love; a brother running from family and friends and making his own way in New York; lovers on the Metro feeling the separateness of their fractured relationship. Each song carries a tenderness and pain tempered with the possibility of reconciliation, of making it out, of finding love again.

The Dalloways are fronted by singer/songwriter Gerhard Enns, who, despite growing up in the agricultural community of California’s Central Valley, coveted the great British pop/poet bands of the 80’s and 90’s in his youth. Enns lists among his early influences Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout, Morrissey of The Smiths, Paul Heaton of Housemartins and Beautiful South fame, and Nick Laird Clowes of The Dream Academy, all songwriter’s that share an affinity for merging style and substance together into enjoyable and moving pop songs. In songwriters, Enns says he admires most “a sense of playfulness and humor and subtlety . . . and an ability to say something truly touching through a pop tune.”

Penalty Crusade was self produced by the band, and simply put, the band got it right. Audiophiles, take note: you will appreciate the subtle production touches and inlays that begin to appear with each pass: a shy guitar lick here, subtle percussion touch there, and playful harmonies throughout. Listen with headphones for a stereophonic experience.

Regarding production, Enns says, “The goal was to create songs that become richer and richer the more one listens to them.” Aaron Wall, drummer and producer for the band, concurs: “Each listen should bring out more of the subtle beauty of the song. That’s what we were trying to do here—create songs that get better with age.”

For mastering (the final necessary sheen of all professionally produced albums), the group sent PC to the best in the business: Bernie Grundman Studios (Morrissey, No Doubt, Beck, Blondie, Bowie, Beastie Boys, this studio’s credits go on and on). The final product is a gorgeous, professionally produced and mastered album.

The Penalty Crusade tour promises to be a landmark achievement and one of many shining moments in this talented band's rising career. Expect more to come. But until then, if you love lush, gorgeous pop tunes, then don't miss The Dalloways. ~ C. Darling

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