aaamusic | On 05, Jun 2011

Dananananaykroyd. Dan-an-an-an-ayk-royd. Say it aloud. Dan-an-an-an-ayk-royd. Let your tongue bounce around, flapping against your palate. Feels good, doesn’t it? Dan-an-an-an-ayk-royd. It’s a party inside your mouth. Sounds good, too. The name, and the music the six men operating under said moniker choose to make.

But if you’re anything like me, this is something you’ve known for no little time. I’ve seen them, these men play to crowds of all sizes, and embrace all equally: you are here, we are here, and together we are going to have the best time. In the UK, through Europe, to America and Australia: audiences have arrived from all standpoints on the band before them, and all have left the experience wearing a grin as if their life depended on it. At Reading Festival, at huge arenas on the continent, at London’s dirtiest sweatboxes: came, saw, smiled, high-fived, hugged, collapsed, conquered. As the band says: “When you let yourself go, huge, fiery things can happen.” They frequently do.

Forming in Glasgow in 2006, Dananananaykroyd put out a couple of singles for a couple of labels, which did pretty well – “pretty well” in this instance amounting to a little blog-swell and some pricked ears from savvy rock critics (like, hi). Then, a strike that was felt wider, deeper: Sissy Hits, a six-tracker picked up by Holy Roar in 2008 and awarded top marks from ‘zines that couldn’t contain their excitement for their infectious melodies, holler-along dual vocals and ferocious punk energy. Sissy Hits was scrappy, messy, bruised and bloody brilliant. The band’s debut album proper, Hey Everyone!, followed in 2009 – off its back, heavy touring and further acclaim. And not just for the band’s incredible live show anymore. They were beginning to find proper studio feet, and the right shoes to wear to recording.

There Is A Way finds Dananananaykroyd not only sporting some snazzy footwear, but slipping into a sharp ensemble worthy of working with a producer whose past credits include cuts by At the Drive-In, The Cure, Deftones, Klaxons and – it’s okay to say you liked them, once – Korn. Ross Robinson is a legend (really, Relationship of Command, need a man say more?), and it is he who has manned the desk for this second album, sessions taking place in Los Angeles in late 2010. But Robinson’s not simply sat back and watched the band crank everything up to 11, an outsider employed for his name alone. His assistance, his experience, has resulted in a collection that isn’t scrappy or messy – it’s bold, snappy, stylish… hell, it’s pop music, man, just not as the charts know it. Yet.

Truly, this is Dananananaykroyd – go on, again: Dan-an-an-an-ayk-royd; ooooh, it tingles – as you’ve not heard them before. Unless you’ve been lucky enough to catch them road-testing these songs ‘til they were studio-ready, at various dives across this land (little fanfare: maximum fun). “It’s a snapshot of the fire we can collectively create in a live setting,” remark our protagonists; “certain parts were specifically written to push our physical limits.” Sounds painful. But while that irrepressible energy remains intact, that boisterousness that’s almost hardcore-like in its intensity, this set showcases a more polished end product, with hooks the size of East Kilbride nestling in the multi-layered mix, ready to dig into the grey matter and stay there ‘til one’s brain has melted away through age and decay, or through actually cranking this album up to 11 a little too often. Exhibit A: Muscle Memory, a swinging stomp-along with instant-fix appeal on a comparable level to ice cream sandwiches. Exhibit B: Think and Feel, with a catchy “nah-nah-nah” motif that’ll burn itself onto the eardrums like someone lit a strip of magnesium inside your lugholes. Exhibit see: the band live, today, with these songs in their arsenal.

Dan-an-an-an-ayk-royd. Bouncy. Fun. There Is A Way is just the beginning of the next phase of this band’s assault on all of your soft bits. Just like your tongue, it’s the tip of something so much bigger…

See Dananananaykroyd live this summer:

28 May Dot to Dot festival, Bristol, Anson Rooms
29 May Dot to Dot festival Nottingham
30 May Dot to Dot festival Manchester Academy 2
1 June London Hoxton Bar and Kitchen
2 June Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
3 June Glasgow, The Ivy (SOLD OUT)
10 Jul Lounge on the Farm Canterbury
15 Jul Dour Festival, Belgium
16 Jul Melt Festival Germany Ferropolis
17 Jul Jarocin Festival Poland Jarocin
19 Jul Holland Amsterdam Paradiso
20 Jul Holland Nijmegan, de Affair
23 Jul Tramlines Festival Sheffield
24 Jul Off The Cuff All Dayer Birmingham Flapper & Firkin
7 Aug Y Not Festival Derbyshire
26 Aug Leeds Festival