Sharp And Ready, Lil Daggers Debut

By Kim Bellware in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 21, 2011 9:00PM

Now that another South by Southwest festival has wrapped up, music fans can catch their collective breath before attempting to sift through the scores of up-and-comers that debuted in Austin.

Post-festival, new bands tend to move in one of three ways: Breaking out and gaining a national audience, riding the buzz for a few more months (or years) before blowing up, or going home to toil in obscurity...maybe forever. Miami-based psych-rockers Lil Daggers made the rounds at SXSW in 2009 but didn't quite rocket to blog and viral video-fueled stardom. Instead, like a savvy young band should, the group used that momentum to tour and record material. The result isn't quite as glamorous as becoming overnight sensations, but in the two years since their turn at SXSW, Lil Daggers have built up a strong library of EPs and 10" records. The band is finally about to drop (on April 12) its first full-length, Lil Daggers--and it ain't half bad.

Druggy, drone-y and with the occasional burst of harmony, Lil Daggers' debut has clearly been informed by the psych-rock of the '60s and '70s. The band seems to favor The Doors-like organ and verb-punched vocals, adding a few screechy garage-rock overtones to make their Mamas and the Papas-esque harmonies sound like they've been left out in the rain to rust.

The band--however narrowly--escapes being pegged a psych-rock knockoff by declining to simply ape their influences. When Lil Daggers retread the sounds from the classic rock landscape, the result is safe and easily likable; the more interesting (and ultimately promising) turns come when the band veers into slowly and deliberately-paced lo-fi crooning and jangly guitars, somehow building a catchy, charging rhythm despite the songs' heaviness.

While nothing specific in the instrumentation or vocals blew us away, the collective effect of Lil Daggers' sound gives us the hunch that they could be very fun to hear live. The band and their fans will have to wait a few more weeks for the final verdict on their self-titled debut, but for now Lil Daggers have accomplished something that's no small feat for an emerging band: They've piqued our interest enough to get us to their show.

Lil Daggers play tonight, March 21, at The Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western, 10:30 p.m., free, 21+