D+D Rules — And I Don’t Mean Dungeons + Dragons, Sorry!

One of the best things about being close to a dozen years older than thirty is that I’m suddenly immune from hipsteritis. What the kids do is merely interesing to me; it doesn’t bother. Huge oversized glasses or Kanye windowpanes? Trucker hats or… damn bowler hats? I just don’t care. That doesn’t mean I’m immune from, say, ranting and jumping up and down for a few seconds over how bad this continued trend of fake Eastern European shit that all the Burning Man ladies and dudes like so much is, or getting a bit flummoxed that all of a sudden everyone who goes into a record shop is an instant expert on African guitar based music who has to speak really loudly about which Rail Band release is the best and they own the original.

Last week I saw one of the best bands in the Pacific Northwest, the Dutchess and the Duke. Lately, I kind of hate most folk music, and pretty much all “tasteful,” NPR-sanctioned indie-pop-rock. (Sorry, I know you thought the “ranting” part of this was over — will be soon!)It stands to reason, then, that tasteful indie-folk-pop-rock such as that propagated by the Seattle-based duo the D+D would be highest on my “kill kill kill” pile. But the D+D do not make awful little middlebrow yuppie type music that plays in the background as you shop for organic goods that have the yellow sign because they have to also be local. D+D are like a campfire garage-rock version of Richard and Linda Thompson.

They’re not super amazing yet, but with any luck, and a bit of time, they will be. I love finding a band I like right after they’ve made their first record, and watching them grow. It’s like… a petri dish! Or something. I meant that as a nice thing but it just sounds gross, sorry about that. But at least I calmed down and stopped raving like indie-rock’s Andy Rooney. Um, yay? Happy Memorial Day.

—DJ Yeti