A Belated Introduction to Dawes
One of my favorite bands is in the spotlight and I have to take advantage
Hello again, Dames Nation!
19 days late, I am finally here to say: how incredible were the Grammy’s this year???
Obviously, much joy was experienced amongst us Dames when Beyoncé finally received the Album of the Year award she so richly deserved— and the Country Album of the Year Award, to her much meme’d surprise. But the thing that made the ceremony such a total delight was the incredible performances it featured. Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli XCX— 2024’s Pop Powerpuff Girls— all turned in spectacular performances. Doechii, after making an emotional speech about becoming the third woman to ever win Best Rap Album, knocked everyone’s socks off with her incredibly sophisticated and assured debut Grammys performance.*
Amidst all this general excellence, however, was a special treat for me: Dawes, one of my very favorite bands, got to open the show with a preposterously elite supporting band. They were granted this honor because of their advocacy for people impacted by the Los Angeles fires—and because of their own severe losses in those fires. Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, brothers and the two musicians at the core of Dawes, grew up not merely in L.A., but in Altadena, one of the neighborhoods devastated by the fires. The band’s studio and equipment, Griffin’s home, and their parents’ home were all destroyed— all just six weeks before Griffin’s first child is due to be born. Taylor’s account of fleeing the fire and witnessing its aftermath is heartbreaking and beautiful— reading it, it’s easy to see why they’ve become the de-facto spokesmen for Altadena’s musical community.
Given the bittersweet prominence they’ve currently achieved, I thought I would share a few songs of theirs I really love, in case any of their recent appearances had left you curious about their work. I have been a fan of their music since my older brother gave me North Hills, their debut album, for Christmas in 2009— along with tickets to see them in concert, a show I’ve previously written about here. Since then, I have seen them live literally more times than I can count, eagerly listened to all their albums, and turned many other friends into devoted fans. This means I feel very qualified to give you a little guidance on where to begin with their music.
Dame Margaret’s Dawes Starter Pack
“When My Time Comes” — When Dawes plays this song live, it’s always a commotion. The crowd shouts itself hoarse. I would be derelict of duty if I failed to mention it.
“Fire Away” — I heard this song for the first time in Dawes’s 2010 set at Newport Folk Festival— their first of many NFF appearances and my first of many times attending. I fell in love with it immediately, so much so that I went home and downloaded the audio of the live performance from NPR’s website and clipped this song out of it. Waiting a full year for their second album to be released is one of the most difficult things I have ever done.
“Million Dollar Bill” — While a Dawes-led version of this song exists, I prefer the version Taylor recorded with Middle Brother, his side project featuring John McCauley of Deer Tick and Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit. The rougher vocals of McCauley and Vasquez bring a necessary grit to a song that could otherwise be too delicate. This whole album absolutely whips.
“All Your Favorite Bands” — If you’ve ever heard a Dawes song before, it’s probably this one because it’s simply undeniable. The chorus makes me cry every single time— “I hope the world sees the same person / that you always were to me / and may all your favorite bands stay together.”
“Things Happen” — That line especially makes me cry in conjunction with this song, which simply wrecks me. “All Your Favorite Bands” sounds like a benediction to someone you’ve lost touch with— “Things Happen” is a fight you’re having in your head with someone you aren’t speaking to, and what breaks my heart is the way those can sometimes be the same people. As a helpless ruminator, I hear so much of myself in this song.
“Roll with the Punches” — This is as good a time as any to explain that Mandy Moore appears in this music video because Mandy Moore is married to Taylor Goldsmith. As someone with a history of staying in terrible relationships much longer than I should, this one really resonates. I often do not realize how much something hurts until I’m outside it.
“Didn’t Fix It” — I think one of the things I particularly adore about Taylor’s songwriting its incredible specificity. It can really feel like you’re listening to someone speaking normally, or their honest inner monologue.
“House Parties” — This skill for picking perfect telling details also allows Taylor to be really, really funny. And evocative! When I listen to this song, I can fully feel myself in both the role of the verse’s beleaguered tourist and the choruses’s raucous partier. I feel like I’ve smoked that good weed with Joni fans and shouted at Kanye fans. And if you can hear the lyrics “Next on our list / is the M&M Store / then the Statue of Liberty / after F.A.O. Schwartz” without feeling chilled to the bone, I simply don’t understand you. Heartbreakingly, I am pretty sure this video is filmed inside the studio Taylor lost to the fires— you can really see what a beautiful and personal space it was.
“The Game” — Another thing that Dawes does really well are character studies like this one. When I listen to this song, I get genuinely mad I can’t listen to any of Milly’s albums.
If I gave myself permission, I could name SO many more songs. But I wanted to give you a manageable sample, so I’ve limited myself to only as many songs as the band has albums. If you like this sample and want to dig deeper, I recommend listening to Nothing is Wrong all the way through, although North Hills, Stories Don’t End, All Your Favorite Bands, and Oh Brother are all also excellent albums. Basically, if you like what you’ve heard here, it’s pretty hard to go wrong listening to more.
Dawes is touring this spring, playing both small “MC Taylor Goldsmith Shows” at sweet little venues in March and full-band shows at larger venues in April. If they’re coming to your town, I highly recommend checking them out.
Other things you might wish to check out: My newly-announced class Mansfield Park: Adaptation as Empathy, which begins one week from Monday! We’ll spend 7 weeks reading Mansfield Park, discussing it in conjunction with two films related to it, and playing with different approaches to adapting it ourselves. I wrote more about it earlier this week, and you can also:
XOXO/ Dame Margaret
*If you left the show as impressed with Doechii as I was, please allow me to insist that you watch her performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It’s not a venue to which I typically pay a lot of attention, but she really did something remarkable with her performance there:
Thanks for introducing me to Dawes, and that Doechii performance has had me OBSESSED. She’s tremendous, as are her bandmates. Check out the Tiny Desk performance as well!! https://youtu.be/-91vymvIH0c?si=0pZyaom75yw-B4ME