The Dare gets sexy results on indie sleazy 'What's Wrong With New York?'
The Dare gets sexy results on indie sleazy 'What's Wrong With New York?'
From his James Murphy by way of Top Shop inspired wardrobe to floppy Britpop hairdo, Harrison Patrick Smith unabashedly embraces the kind of sound and look and attitude that was inescapably ubiquitous in the early 00s, affectionally remembered and romanticized these days as the era of indie sleaze. On his full length debut as The Dare, Smith dons off-the-rack style but gets the skin tight fast fashion impeccably tailored before stepping out on the scene with the devilishly delirious What’s Wrong With New York?
The first half of the album is intensely debaucherous, distilling electroclash hedonism to its most elemental level and then proceeding to blow up the remains to cartoonishly immense levels that would make Uffie blush, bursting with deconstructed and fuzzed out beats and jagged instrumentation that blurs the line between dancefloor and dive bar with studious aplomb.
“Girls” captured attention when it was originally released during the depths of the pandemic, an explosive tantrum of unchecked raging hormones set to an infectious rhythm that stood in direct defiance to lockdown restlessness that begs to be played on repeat. Despite the track’s inherent near-mimicry of 20 year old trends, “Girls” still felt fresh and exciting, tapping directly into modern frustrations and drowning them in a torrent of Red Bull vodkas and saturated in the boundlessness of youthful libido.
Smith channels the confident provocativeness of Death From Above 1979’s “Sexy Results” all the way down to Sebastien Grainger’s ironically pouty delivery on “Perfume,” an ode to cheap fragrances and even cheaper thrills. “You’re Invited” pulses with the kind of cool-kid verve all but evaporated in today’s dour-leaning alt-rock landscape, harkening back to a time when the guest list blurred the lines of demarcation between band-guys and club-kids and it-girls where everyone was up all night, seemingly every night, to get lucky.
Deliciously naughty turns of phrase abound, paired with gutter glam witticisms that contrast Smith’s hard and fast lifestyle at the epicenter of the metropolitan club scene with the monotonous voyeurism of a social life spent entirely on the social networks. “I’m in the city while you’re online, I’m in the club while you’re online” boasts and teases as much as it dares you to join him on a journey from the party to the after-party to after-after-party and beyond. The Dare offers a tantalizing glimpse into the kind of reckless troublemaking that dominated the blogosphere of the early aughts and continues to simmer below the pavement, occasionally ratting the midnight streets above like a passing subway car.
Smith takes a breather on the diptych presentation of “All Night” and “Elevation,” a pair of tracks that pull heavily from the LCD Soundsystem playbook both sonically and thematically, viewing the aftermath of the party from half-open miniblinds slicing through the darkness with the intensity of last night’s rager lasers and the inevitability of a burgeoning hangover.
It doesn’t take long for “The Movement” to roar back like a first sip of the hair of the dog, as Smith dives headlong right back into the club. Replacing throbbing headaches with pulsing beats, The Dare parties through the pain on another unstoppable bender under the strobe lights and towering PAs of big city underground nightlife.
What’s Wrong With New York? exhibits Smith’s range as a curator, and is electrified by his unabashed commitment to the cause. Anything less than total immersion in lifestyle on display would be inauthentic, but Smith walks the walk as much as he talks the talk as a master of the craft, even if the path is well trodden in both directions.
Stream What’s Wrong With New York on Spotify and follow The Dare on Instagram.
Upcoming Shows
10 September - Cambridge, MA - Sonia
11 September - Washington, D.C. - Atlantis
12 September - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
14 September - Detroit, MI - El Club
15 September - Chicago, IL - Sleeping Village
17 September - Denver, CO - Hi Dive
18 September - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court