Time for another Yata thread, ladies and gentlemen.
Dredg is a American rock band from Los Gatos, California. Formed in the early 90's, their lineup has pretty much always been Gavin Hayes (vocals, slide guitar, guitar), Mark Engles (guitar), Drew Roulette (bass), and Dino Campanella (drums, piano). The band is sometimes accompanied by a string section on tours. Over the course of their nearly 20-year career, their style has changed drastically numerous times. Their earliest EPs consisted of nu-metal tracks. Adding experimental sections of work each time, the band slowly deviated from the restraints of nu-metal and added blends of progressive rock for their debut album
Leitmotif. Their second album, the almost universally well-received
El Cielo further pushed the band's progressive boundaries, adding in art rock flair and substituting Gavin's harsh vocals for his smooth and dreamy ones that would later become a staple of the band.
El Cielo is generally considered the group's magnum opus, and if you want to start somewhere with this band, that's where I recommend. Following
El Cielo, were two catchier and pop rock-oriented releases by the names of
Catch Without Arms and
The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion. In 2011, the band released their latest album, the minimalistic pop experiment known as
Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy.Dredg is a very unique band. I cannot possibly emphasize that enough. Gavin's vocals are one of the clearest, smoothest, logato-ist(?), vocals you will ever hear in rock music. Dredg is musically varied, not just from album to album but song to song as well. They're very ambitious; 4 of their 5 studio albums are beautifully pulled-off and invigorating concept albums, whose information and backstories can be found
here. With a refusal to release the same ol' shit twice, the band constantly evolves, looking for new ways to fuse genres and have fun. Even if those fusions don't work all that well (Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy was the biggest let down of all music in 2011, imo), you have to give them an A for effort.
Some other things I should mention: Pretty much all of the members of the band are actual artists too.
It's weird, but cool. Their music, particularly
El Cielo is quite dreamy.
Here's an example of their stuff, possibly their best and most beautiful song to date, titled "The Canyon Behind Her". Oh, and my name "Yatahaze" (and the whole "I'm a tree" thing) was taken from the title of a song on
Leitmotif. I'm just cool like that.
Anyways, gotta wrap this up.
Discography:
Conscious EP - 1996
Orph EP - 1997
Leitmotif - 1998
El Cielo - 2002
Catch Without Arms - 2005
The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion - 2009
Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy - 2011
