Chyeah Chyeah - Feel Good Be Dandy

Chyeah Chyeah

Feel Good Be Dandy
self-released; 2013

4.0 out of 5

By Sean Dennison

Sometimes I feel like mentioning where a band's from and sometimes I wonder, "What's the point?" Just in case there is a point, Chyeah Chyeah (if you say it ten times really fast, you're still saying it) is from just outside Seattle and plays simple but tough rock numbers. Their songs sort of remind me of the one kid who couldn't hold his own but would still throw down anyway so that when his opponent left the schoolyard arena with a black eye word got out that you could mess with said kid, but it wouldn't be fun. The compositions aren't complex, but the members are definitely tuned into each other’s strengths.

On their album Feel Good Be Dandy, singer Jeremy White uses his raspy, earnest voice (think of a really distant cousin to The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach) to bolster soft synth lines set up over a brawny rhythm section with sultry guitar lines. No one tries to muscle anyone else out of the way and the five-piece is free to play their own style of deconstructed garage blues. The key to these songs as successes is the bursts of energy the musicians feed into them. The shorter they are, the better in this case, though a long song is hardly a recipe for disaster. "Shark Weak" (I giggled) makes good use of groovy guitar lines with a mid-tempo drum beat the entire song and it anchors the other song's musical aspects. Too long, though, like in "Breathe of Fresh Air," and it becomes apparent Chyeah Chyeah doesn't know how to sustain their ideas.

Then again, their motif of teenage rock doesn't need much sustenance. The synth lines are reminiscent of the key organ playing from bands like the Seeds while the other instruments set up bouncy pop foundations taken from the book of The Rolling Stones and all those 45s collecting dust at the record store. The combination is immensely pleasing, especially when heard through the sunshine guitar work on "L.S.D."

At 12 songs, two of which are bonus tracks, Feel Good Be Dandy is the proper length to help the listener achieve what the album title recommends

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