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The Daily Afflictions/Dive On In

Our story begins in Crested Butte, 2005, when itinerant salesman and deep thinker Timothy Ott met sound scientist/rocket man Khurrum Ansari through a mutual friend. Drinking and discussion led to the rapid realization that the two music obsessives’ very different paths must soon join. It wasn’t that they shared matching influences or similar backgrounds, far from it. The two guitarists and songwriters found rather that their disparate tastes when combined somehow created something much greater than either could muster on their own. Ott’s bread-and-butter classic rock instincts (think Neil Young, Dylan, the Doors) were galvanized by Ansari’s insatiable taste for the experimental and transgressive (Sonic Youth, Velvets, Joy Division). Of course, they did and do have a few shared touchpoints – all artists with a singular, unique, unmistakable vision. The Fab Four, it goes without saying, but also the inspirationally genre-defying Ween and the late, great Tim Buckley, to whom Dive On In pays tribute with a revival of Buckley’s own interpretation of the doo-wop standard “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses.”

Fast-forward a year and change. Now living in a dimly lit apartment in Boulder where Ansari’s arsenal of instruments, amplifiers, effects, and recording equipment threatens to leave no room for human occupants, the duo begins work on the record that will eventually become Dive On In. Most of the songs are written in intense collaboration, in some cases with the pair actually exchanging lyrics line by line. The Berklee-trained Alex Venetucci arrives and is immediately an integral part of the project with his musical, tasteful work on drumkit and congas. A three-song EP, Pre-emptive, gets circulated among friends. In the 2006 Conor O’Neil’s Spring Fox Theater Challenge, the band places second (to Gregory Alan Isakov). Recording continues.

Finally, in the spring of 2007, things start to get really interesting. Looking for a fourth member as passionate as they are about their music, Ansari and Ott place a Westword ad for a bass player. Western Homes, a local veteran sideman of bands like Subcity Six and teamAWESOME! (and an accomplished songwriter in his own right), sees the ad, listens to the few songs the incipient Afflictions have up on their MySpace page, and is completely blown away. Homes is the first and only person to audition; finally, the Daily Afflictions are complete. The band plays its first show as a four-piece at Boulder’s Lazy Dog Saloon and then debuts in Denver to an audience more than a hundred strong at Cervantes. Not wishing to lose any time or momentum, the band rushes to Immersive Studios in Boulder where they record three tracks in one day with Storytyme’s Tony Lewis manning the boards. Finally, an album three years in the making is complete.

Was it worth the wait? Listeners will have to judge for themselves, but it’s hard to think of a more auspicious debut album from a Boulder band in recent memory. From the softly swaying, jazz-tinged travelogue of “Beaches of Brasil” to the hard-rock crunch of “Trigger Happy,” Dive On In is almost impossibly musically diverse, yet all of the songs are tied together by the wit and warmth of Ott’s vocals. “Magic Potion” is a stunning tribute to Ansari’s musical vision and engineering skill, with layer upon layer of psychedelic effects enhancing rather than detracting from the straightforward acoustic base shared by many of the tunes on Dive On In. The Homes/Venetucci rhythm section shines on the miles-deep groove of “Radio Joe,” a reggae protest song (of all things). And listen closely to the whole group’s performance on “Sally Go Round,” as Ott wrings every last inch of desperation and despair from the lyrics, an unhinged Homes growls backing vocals, and Ansari and Venetucci artfully underplay the rhythm.

The Daily Afflictions are deep, man, miles deep, but the water is warm and inviting. Dive on in.