Rockbites: Dora Flood do the timewarp on 3rd LP

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Dora Flood do the timewarp on 3rd LP
28 May 2002

Careening through the ’60s and ’70s with Dora Flood, Madam of Cannery Row.

San Francisco retro/psychedelic rockers Dora Flood have a grand vision—one that encompasses the glory of a symphonic Pink Floyd moment, the panoramic sweep of a Byrds melody, the sublime intricacy of an arrangement by The Church, and the dreamy pump of a Bowie glam-era rocker.
    But their third full-length, titled Welcome—self-produced and released on their own label on 1 May—pursues such lofty goals and more without a trace of pretension and with enough humor to make it all flow.
    Dora Flood’s musical palette may be disconcertingly familiar and somewhat extravagant. But if you can wend your way past that initial distraction you’ll find a lovingly crafted rock record informed by a spurting fount of originality and a keen, even shocking, musical sensibility. Welcome merges a fully-fleshed, major-label production aesthetic with a fully-DIY, brazen artistic independence. The result, to say it plainly, blows me away.
    Front man/songwriter Michael Padilla spoke with Rockbites recently, contrasting Welcome against their previous LPs: “I would describe the new record as a more realized, cohesive batch of songs, a little brighter and less dark than Lost On Earth...
    “We tracked all the songs in Nathan Wood’s basement before he was our new guitarist, then went and had Dave Schiffman [P.O.D., Rage Against The Machine, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Johnny Cash] mix it in another studio called Laughing Tiger in San Rafael. This gave us the freedom to get exactly the takes we wanted rather than settling for what our budget could allow.”
    Opening with the title track, that for all the world sounds like Roger McGuinn fronting Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd, the new album careens through the ’60s and ’70s like some out-of-control carnival ride... along the way tripping upon what may be the coolest ’70s funk-disco track I’ve ever heard, Forget To Be Numb.
    Dora Flood are named after a character in John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, a local reference to Monterey, California. They’ve been working up to Welcome for ten years with three other discs in their catalog—all still available (check their Website).
    The band recently underwent a personnel shuffle—the current lineup includes Padilla on vocals, guitars, and occassional percussion and bass; new member Nathan Wood on guitars; new member Brian Tyley on bass; Sean DeGaetano on drums; and Stephen Cavoretto on keyboards, trumpet, and vocals.
    If you like the musical sculptures made with ’60s and ’70s day-glo Play-Doh by folks like Robyn Hitchcock and Chicago’s The Chamber Strings, you owe it to yourself to check out the new one by Dora Flood. Four bites out of five.

Rockbites ratings  5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying.

| Dora Flood | | Welcome (full length MP3) | | Welcome CD from Heyday | | top of page |

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