by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
The upcoming Flower Festival album was nearly a decade in the making. Not so much in the bloated wasting away hundreds of thousands of dollars kind of way but more in the fact that Micah Dailey really only worked at it when the mood was right, working freely and without expectation. The music came at the beginning, the words far later. Age, due out January 26th via Moone Records (Post Moves, Mushfoot, Helvetia) and Anxiety Blanket Records (Goon, Zelma Stone, La Bonte), is an album transfixed on life’s changes, a farewell to the one’s past self and an appraisal of where life’s lemons have left him. While the path of his life is obviously deeply personal, Dailey isn’t alone throughout the record. He’s assembled an impeccable cast of contributors that includes John Dieterich (Deerhoof), Nicholas Krgovich, Lonna Kelley (Giant Sand), Michael Krassner (Califone), Qais Essar (Stephen Malkmus), Sam Wenc (Post Moves), and many others, each lending a hand in bringing Dailey’s story to vivid life.
“Stolen,” the album’s lead single pairs Flower Festival together with Krgovich (backing vocals), Dieterich (guitar), and his brother, Moone Records’ own Caleb Dailey (acoustic guitar), the group coming together with an unexpected groove, rolling with a smokey ease and a harmonic fluidity. The combination of Dailey and Krgovich’s voices is gorgeous, their falsettos dipping in and out of soft hooks and a surrealist sort of psych saunter. Flower Festival is moving with one head in the clouds and one grounded in life’s unmistakable reality, dissapointment and wonder in equal measure, as long as its honest. It’s a stunning song that layers in Dieterich’s solo in hazy pieces, everything a bit detached but in that coloring outside the lines drives the essence of Dailey’s words. Amid a bouncing rhythm and a wistful feel, Flower Festival seep further into realms of hard earned bliss. The result is delightfully engaging, the song casually unraveling in its own time, with emphasis on both structure and atmosphere.