Dallas Ugly Set 8th April for Debut Album Release

The song, “Liberated No Ones,” lumbers along, ghostly, with touches of Gillian Welch-esque verses and bursts of spazzy Radiohead-sounding drum breaks and violin-turned-arpeggiator fills. “I was visiting a friend in Pittsburgh and she described our group of friends as ‘a bunch of liberated no ones,’ as in, people who are succeeding in unconventional ways,” says Burton. “We had this conversation in the attic of the big, old house she was renting that overlooked the city. We speculated about the coal miners that used to live there and the families that spent their lives in that house. They were liberated no ones in their own way, too.” The rendition of this song that made it on the album encapsulates the idea of these people, liberated no ones of the present and past, in swirling, earnest verse and building stacks of harmony. Watch the historically inspired video here which features footage of coal miners sourced from documentaries Steel: A Symphony of Industry, “Original Pocahontas” Coal and A Chance To Play.

The whole of Watch Me Learn—produced by Alec Spiegelman (Cuddle Magic, Ana Egge, Taylor Ashton)—explores the missed adventures and misadventures of life in one’s early twenties—mistakes being made, lessons being learned, bonds being formed and broken as one grows into the person they’re are meant to be. The band explores these themes with fondness and love, a gentle empathy for the inner child they’ve left behind. But more than anything else, they explore them together. “I hope that what people take away from the album is an emotional response—take away the feeling of having just caught up with some old friends in a very intimate experience,” says Weitnauer. After all, that’s what the album was to them: a way to reconnect with old friends after time apart—sharing the stories of the hardships and triumphs that led them back to each other. It’s an album that in part looks back on the journeys and evolutions we make as individuals, but also looks towards the communities and people who shape our lives in equal measure.

These themes lend themselves naturally to the rolling country music vibes of Dallas Ugly’s melodies and instrumentation—together, the band presents a dreamy, last-call rendition of three chords and the truth. If you close your eyes, you can practically feel yourself slow dancing under the lazy orbit of a disco ball at midnight.