| B-SIDES | ▼ Music Dig This Sur Duda is back with a sophomore album inspired by everyday drudgery. BY DAVID FLETCHER I t’s a Tuesday afternoon, and Sur Du- da’s lead singer, Cameron Smith, takes a break from helping a group of friends hanging out at The Boiled Owl Tavern. Smith puts in some hours at the bar from time to time, but not on this day. He splits his time between projects, run- ning the day-to-day operations at the Fort Worth base of record label/shop Dreamy Life Records after co-founder Robbie Rux moved to Seattle earlier this year, selling re- cords and booking shows at Dreamy Life’s headquarters at Main at South Side (M.A.S.S.), hosting M.A.S.S.’s monthly show- case Excursions on a Wobbly Rail, playing solo stuff and heading up the indie-rock out- fit Sur Duda. Sur Duda released its sophomore album, Total Distortion, in early December fol- lowed shortly by the first video the band has released in which you can actually see the band members’ faces, for “Bad Ways to Feel Well.” The new single feels like a would-be story/song fractured by indecision and quo- tidian monotony, channeling Jonathan Richman’s wit and Ben Kweller’s pop sensi- bility, but for Smith, the song is the out- growth of a slow day at the office. “I wrote that song back when I was working at the Dreamy Life store when it was inside the Fairmount Community Li- brary,” Smith says. “I think I was probably just trying to write just to write something, because the first lines are literally just de- scribing, like, the room that I was in — there was, like, this extension cord that we used during the shows in the library that was plugged into the junkiest old outlet.” As Smith began to mull over the possibil- ity of bad wiring causing an electrical fire in a building that he loved so much, his mind started freely associating with life’s many dualities, or as they came to be known in the song, the “many good ways to feel like hell” and “the many bad ways to feel well.” The lyrics of the song follow the frazzled narrator through his adventures as a chicken playing tic-tac-toe with a doctor who hates kids, his birth into a bureaucratic world that required his signature after his delivery and the drudgery of full-time work. In each instance, the song sets the audi- 18 ence up to expect a grand lesson when what they get is just playful acceptance of the ab- surdity of it all. Take, for instance, the song’s finale, in which the singer laments that “there are some folks I wish I never had met,” but instead of banishing them from his cron variant, according to a statement re- leased by the Recording Academy and CBS earlier this afternoon. “After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community and our many partners, the Recording Academy and CBS have postponed the 64th annual Grammy Awards Show,” the statement reads. “The health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remain our top priority. Given the uncertainty surrounding the omicron variant, holding the show on Jan. 31st simply contains too many risks.” The Recording Academy says the Grammy Awards ceremony will be held “on a future date, which will be announced soon.” Of course, that means the nominees, in- Chris Waldon Sur Duda is back with a sophomore album inspired by everyday drudgery. life he says, “I’m not going back to the office until I can see a hypnotist” in order to deal with them. He goes on to vow that he will “quit once a year.” Much in the same way the song subverts the audience’s expectations, the video for “Bad Ways to Feel Well” places its protago- nist in the midst of a classic trope — a man followed throughout the town by ghosts with an unknown purpose. “The ghosts came about because of the ‘Can’t Even Pretend’ single artwork that was released way ahead of the record,” Smith says. “When I was trying to think of a video with Jerod Costa, the director, we came up with the idea of them following me around. That image comes from this idea of being haunted by something from your past, but you come to find out that the ghosts are not there to haunt me. They’re trying to just, like, give me my keys back.” Smith says that this is music for people who like to dig into lyrics to seek out the deeper meaning in the words. He points to songwriters like Silver Jews’ David Berman, Songs: Ohia’s Jason Molina, Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker and Karen Dalton as his influences. “I’ve just kinda always been writing,” Smith says, “it’s been a thing since I was young. My mom is a writer, too. When I was little, she would set up little poetry diagrams for me — the ABA ABA structure kind of thing — and she’d be working on stuff at her typewriter in the kitchen, and I’d make my own little rhymes with her. I guess that’s how I was taught to process things, and now it’s just something that happens.” There’s a lot to tease out in Smith’s stream of consciousness intonations on “Bad Ways to Feel Well,” and trying to connect the discombobulated dots is part of the fun. cluding some from North Texas, will have to wait a little longer to find out if they’ll get to call themselves Grammy winners this year. There’s a long, impressive list of nominees from Dallas for the 2022 Gram- mys including Fort Worth’s Leon Bridges, who’s up for two awards; indie favorite St. Vincent; Selena Gomez, who received her first nomination for Best Latin Pop Album; country star Miranda Lambert; three-time Grammy nominee Jazmmeia Horn and Desoto’s LilluMadeDaBeat, aka Julian Mason, who produced Megan Thee Stal- lion’s “Thot Shit,” nominated for Best Rap Performance. Wes Stephenson, the bassist for Dallas band Funky Knuckles, provided some sounds for local guitar god Mark Lettieri’s Deep: The Baritone Sessions, Vol. 2, which is up for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Stephenson says he got the sort of surprising news in an email from the Re- cording Academy around noon. “I didn’t see it coming, but it’s not very surprising, to be honest with you,” he says. “It’s understandable. It sucks but it’s under- standable.” Snarky Puppy keyboardist Shaun Martin, Mike Brooks Soul singer Leon Bridges has two nominations for the 2022 Grammy Awards. “It’s, like, if you have a style or some- thing,” Smith says, “you’re the last person to know what it is.” ▼ GRAMMY AWARDS CAESURA L THE GRAMMY AWARDS ARE POST- PONED AND LOCAL NOMINEES MAY HAVE TO WAIT LONGER FOR THE RESULTS. BY DANNY GALLAGHER ast Wednesday was the last day of vot- ing for the 2022 Grammy Awards, but it turns out we won’t see the results as soon as we thought. The Recording Academy announced that the Grammy ceremony, scheduled for Mon- day, Jan. 31, will be postponed because of the widespread infections caused by the omi- who also has a credit on Lettieri’s album, says the Grammys are a massive production that takes much longer to produce than what people at home end up seeing on TV. Having all those crews working while the omicron variant is still thriving presents a massive risk. “I think it’s a smart idea,” Martin says. “I don’t think we know how this thing’s going to play out.” Martin says he received a positive CO- VID test just after Christmas and just got over his illness thanks to his wife, whom he calls his “MVP.” “I did have to cancel an appearance in Las Vegas, but it is what it is,” Martin says. “I would much rather be home and safe and not infect anybody as opposed to going out and trying to make a dollar I can make at any point.” Stephenson says the latest news about the awards ceremony doesn’t dent the dis- tinction of just getting to call yourself a part of a Grammy nominated album. “It’s still a ridiculous honor,” Stephenson says, “even just to be nominated, but it is dis- heartening knowing you’re going to have to wait.” 1 dallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | DALLAS OBSERVER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JANUARY 13-19, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com
