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Motor City Movers & Shakers: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - "Dark Water" (Joe Baughman Clay-mation)




Right off the bat, "Dark Water" vaguely reminds me of "Strawberry Fields Forever"'s droning Psych-Rock wail mixed with a strong 90's Weezer Pop sensibility and a Funky, white boy Dance-able groove. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. unleashed their latest release, Patterns EP last month on Record Store Day (April 20th) and now, it's conveniently available on iTunes for just $3.99. Joshua Epstein & Daniel Zott are 2 like-minded, working class Motor City natives whose Facebook Biography blatantly suggests, "The idea being, that if one can accept a band being named Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., then you've already opened yourself up to listening to anything the band can come up with. You've already decided to leave expectations behind." For all intensive purposes, if you don't count newly-added members Mike Higgins (drums) and Jon Visger (keys), I don't think it'd be TOTALLY unreasonable to sonically compare Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. to another wildly prolific 2-man Blues Rock band, The Black Keys. Anyways, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. have now shared Track #3 of 4 from Patterns EP, "Dark Water;" It's companion music video was directed/sculpted by Joe Baughman along with animators Daniel Jeter, Michael Baughman, and sculptor Rachel Phipps. Included within are various means of visual art: clay-mation, a stage show with moving scenery, classic videography, etc. to tell the twisted story of a ballerina [possibly] lost underwater. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.'s "a little more confident-sounding" second proper full-length, The Speed of Things is supposedly slated for a sun-soaked late Summer release on Warner Bros.