The Dreadful Yawns: “Darkness Is Gone”

The Dreadful Yawns, from Cleveland, were the last band to be signed to Bomp Records by the late, much-mourned Greg Shaw. They don’t exactly fit what I think of as the Bomp sound—they’re not garage, and though there’s a certain dreamy/spaceyness to some of their songs, they’re not particularly psychedelic either. But all that proves is that Greg Shaw had good, not narrow taste, and knew a band worth hearing when he heard them.

So, having described what they don’t sound like, I’ll take a stab at capturing what they do sound like. The short version would be that they’ve clearly listened to plenty of Neil Young, Gram Parsons, and the Byrds, and though the term “country rock” may have negative connotations for some, it shouldn’t with respect to this band: they embody it beautifully. Their current self-titled record is not their first; they put out an EP some years back, and then the fine folks at Undertow released a full-length record called “Early” in 2003. I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I haven’t heard that one yet, though it’s on my list o discs to buy.

But the current record is one of my pleasant surprises of the year, a rare example of a record that I bought about two minutes after hearing online samples and still ended up liking. (I’ve had the opposite experience with records I’ve bought on the basis of 30-second online clips and ended up totally underwhelmed by that I’ve now forbidden myself to buy anything without hearing at least three full songs from it.) Here’s one of the more uptempo and twangy tracks from the record, “Darkness Is Gone,” for your listening pleasure.