Nothing Ugly About Dallas Ugly

This is my band. I've been banging on about stunning female solo artists all winter, and while I admit they were all quite good, they were not bands with male and female voices. I also bang on about duets and the counterpoint between men and women in a band. Fleetwood Mac shows how musical toxicity can sometimes generate magic. I detect zero toxicity in Dallas Ugly. But do they have self esteem issues?

Do you want to know something funny? These Tennessee Bands just want to sound British/Irish. Listen: "the romantic swoon of ... the Cranberries." Whatever desire I harbour to have been born in Music City, Britain and Ireland are still the very much more shittier shit. The only thing that still puzzles me about this Nashville-based band who met at college in Chicago: why Dallas?

See Me Now is the second album. We don't use the phrase sophomore in college here (I mean university) so I won't use it. I don't like it. But we all know that the second album is the best and worst. It is often thinner on experience, rushed out to satisfy demand from fans, and is so often the second and final album. Have no such concerns about See Me Now. It's the business. In their own words, they have levelled up.

Please add them on Bandcamp. I always look out for Bandcamp artists because they make it so much easier for international fans (of which I am very much one) to get their stuff. It is hard with customs and air freight to buy CDs or vinyl from America but digital downloads are a different thing and so much easier, as well as being instant. You can support Dallas Ugly that way, no matter where in the world you live. I think the US music scene can be quite insular (there's another country outside our border? Wow! And more than ONE?! CHRIST!) in a way that possibly no other music scene is.

I am listening to My Corner of the World and the voice of Libby Weitnauer just made me shiver involuntarily. I really thought she was standing behind me then, whispering into my ear. I could happily play this song all day on loop.

I even love that Libby has a German name, just like me. The Weitnauers are from Weitnau in Bavaria unfortunately. I say that because Bavaria is a strange, odd place. Whereas the Dettmanns are from the thrilling port town of Hamburg. So there. Marry me Libby! [Just no. This whole para is for the bin. Ed.]

Spotify just went to When I Fall by Steve Earle. I was about to say by Dallas Ugly. I love this song. But Spotify knows what it's about. It could have been Dallas! There is even a female voice provided by Stacey Earle. Digression alert.

Doing Good is more than good. Libby again. Marry me– haha. We already got hitched I think. It is the sheer variety of this collection of songs that is stunning. They're all brilliant. I don't know which one to write about next.

I can't believe Sugar Crash is still Libby. There's a range here. This is high almost squeaky, poppy and sweet like... well, candy on a weeknight. She's a grown woman but she still mainlines Haribo all night long. Well, better Tangfastics than fentanyl one presumes. This trio has something special together. They make a sugar crash sound fun whereas we all know it's worse than a K-hole. God she's coming down now. Take cover.

You Can Leave has a male voice. Despite the title it sounded really upbeat and catchy. And then they split up which sort of surprised-not-surprised me. It's a sad one lyrically but not in the groove. Honestly every single one of these songs could be a single.

We finish with the haunting Thin Skin which does have a Dolores sort of frail ghostly edge. It's a lovely end to a very accomplished album. I cannot write about every song. I prefer to listen. I want to leave something for you to discover. The great news is that the band sneaked this album out under cover of darkness around a month ago, so you can go and listen immediately! No waiting!

Press Bit

Nashville’s Dallas Ugly (Owen Burton, Libby Weitnauer, and Eli Broxham) are an indie rock band of truly trusted friends who - after a decade of playing together - return with their best work yet. Beautifully produced in collaboration with Grammy winning engineer Justin Francis, their sophomore album See Me Now is contemporary, crisp, and alive, a fiddle-filled entry in the current band-with-guitar renaissance that puts them in conversation with acts like MJ Lenderman, Big Thief, and Allegra Krieger while still channelling the sparkly sing-along heights of late 90s radio. The growth of heartache, finding footing in an unstable world, and modern anxiety resonate out in soaring harmony.

Ok that is quite good. There's also something about a Venn diagram so these guys are like really clever as well as very talented. Now have a listen!