Dave Matthews Band, Under The Table And Dreaming
Featured Album
Oddball pop outfit's pre-frat party debut
Long before the Dave Matthews Band became indelibly linked to fraternity hoe-downs, they were an oddball pop outfit that managed to secure itself an unlikely radio niche in the halcyon of grunge. The band's multicultural lineup — a yelpy, idiosyncratic frontman, a bodybuilding violinist, a jazz saxophonist, an expert drummer and a lanky, twenty-year old bassist — was far from de rigueur on Top 40 radio in the mid '90s (well, except for maybe the lanky bassist). But DMB's breakthrough LP, 1994's Under the Table and Dreaming, spawned a string of skronky, ecstatic singles ("What Would You Say," "Satellite," "Ants Marching") that sounded unlike anything else on the airwaves.
Dave Matthews 'greatest asset as a songwriter is his impishness, and no other DMB record is quite as playful (or as mischievous) as this one: Matthews's lyrics veer from uncomfortable ("If you could keep me floating, just for a while / Till I get to the end of this tunnel, Mommy" he mews in "Jimi Thing") to prescient ("Take these chances / Place them in a box until a quieter time / Lights down, you up and die" he warns in "Ants Marching"), but his delivery is sweet and teasing enough to charm some naysayers. Meanwhile, his bandmates 'jazz-jam-fusion — never short on virtuosity, even when in service of a pop-palatable melody — is sharp and boisterous. It's easy to belittle the Dave Matthews Band for its dedicated collegiate following, but it's not as simple to ignore their originality.
