PREMIERE DUM1, "Mercury Sabre"

DUM1 visionary Mack Narragan; press photo courtesy of the artist.

Grief has the potency to knock out the ground beneath us. The depth and acuity that loss can wield strikes the center of our core and consciousness, opening the sluice gates for myriad generational traumas to pile on like a latent wave of anxiety and incomprehensible intensities of anguish.

These degrees of combustible volatility and combustible and vulnerability are part of the confluence that lead CVCC's Mack Narragan to discover the inner songbook for the sad and sorted out epoch of emptied out upward opportunities. Grappling with the loss of a dear friend along with a few family members, Narragan quickly recorded the album On a Dime as a way to release the the deluge of emotions that welled up from within. Confronting generational trauma as a descendent of Armenian genocide survivors, Mack explores the oceanic sized anguish of isolation, the codependent cope of addiction, self-reflection, and mindful observances on the meanings, truths, and fallacies that are found on the stage of life. With a little help from fellow musicians Gracie Malley (of The Greasy Gills, Rip Room), Sam Benedetti (also of The Greasy Gills), and fellow CVCC member Julio Palacios; the Oakland group DUM1 unleashes the ultimate and essential album of the summer/year.

Mack and the bunch kick it off with the stunning "Mercury Sabre", a massive anthem that feels like you have known this song your whole life long. Built upon the shiny rhythmic power pop foundation of the Loft's cult single "Why Does the Rain"; "Sabre" cuts like the song you never want to end. The golden guitar glow gathers up the pastel draped DIY 90s hopefuls that built that flannel clad communities of your favorite 90s underachievers, DUM1 conjures a sound that is full of feeling that psychically resonates with a comforting warmth and familiarity. Never before has the finite continuum of life, legacies, tribulations, and all the historical trajectories that trace the travels of time been so beautifully expressed as "Ode to the Endings" where the arrivals and departures of everyone and everything feels part of the cyclical dance of nature. Narragan exhibits encounters with the emotions of the unconscious and conscious streams of sentiments with a sunglasses studded sincerity and serenity, heard on the radical acceptance of everything that cannot be fixed or immediately healed, "I Know it Won't Mend". The meditative catharsis gently churns like Goodyear tire tripping thoughts experienced on a late night AC Transit bus ride back home from work after a late shift on songs like "Plastic Clovers" and "From Here to Sebastia".

Hard reckonings are expressed with the energetic gusto of hyper realism mixed with a big rollicking sound on songs like "No1's Good" that searches for good folks within the transgressive trials of existence. Musings over yesterday's papers skip sweetly on the front steps strumming "Day Old News", keeping the Flaming Groovies flag flying high with Rickenbacker rollers like "Gilbey's Landing". Introspection and intense personal investigations of the spiritual and aspirational do battle in the candid confrontations on "Pacing", in a record that illustrates vulnerability with heartfelt honesty like the humble beauty and brilliance witnessed on the closing track "Hiding a Fool".

On a Dime illustrates what expansive masterpieces can be made with a succinct economy of time and budget. DUM1 presents an album for everyone, an album for anyone who has been affected by the varying dimensions of grief, and all the hurt it elicits from its depths as it surfaces in our fragile psyches. Mack and company have created an album that drives through the raging refinery fire with a glorious propulsion of sound that reminds us that love, truths, and beauty truly exists beyond the wreckages wrought by the tempests of time.

Mack Narragan of DUM1 provided reflections on the opening song “Mercury Sabre”, the new record, and more:

“Mercury Sabre” was written quickly, as if I was spiritually nauseous and had to expel it into existence, only to take a breath and take a second look at what had just arrived.

Guitars, amps, shades, heaters, and silver cowboy hats; DUM1 press photo courtesy of the artists.

I was upset that the people I loved the most were either dying, moving away, or were just going through hell, which left me feeling like I was constantly surrounded by people I couldn’t stand or had treated me like shit that I still had to reason with. I’m not saying it’s a song about being in the right, but rather ok, I have to deal with you, but I’ll not give you my all and I’ll most likely self-medicate to soldier through. But that feeling is also balanced with a summoning and celebration of resilience.

A cig break with DUM1; press photo courtesy of the artists.

The strange dichotomy of the song is that while singing those melodies between the verses, I feel both a juvenile antagonism towards what I don't want, yet a mourning for who I’ve lost, and a commitment to carrying on, even if the only fuel is spite. It was written as fast as my fingers stumbled upon that riff. I’d like to imagine the characters in Lee Marvin’s The Dirty Dozen [1967] listening to it while enjoying a final toast before getting shot to pieces on an ill-fated mission.

On a Dime from DUM1 arrives July 17 via Take a Turn Records.