Dave Matthews Band

Essential Albums

  • Crash
    Crash
    Crash

    The sudden ascendance of the Dave Matthews Band following the group’s 1994 debut, Under the Table and Dreaming, could have spelled trouble—the kind of trouble that had befallen many of DMB’s mid-1990s major-label peers. This was a group that had a few hits and a much-buzzed reputation as a good-times live act. Did the band members have enough songs—and enough time—to get into the studio and knock out a skeptics-defying, career-affirming follow-up album? Crash, released in 1996, answered with a resounding yes. The record had first taken shape on the road, while Matthews and his bandmates were still promoting Under the Table and Dreaming. Rather than simply play the album they’d just released, they’d test out new songs, with Matthews reshaping the lyrics onstage in real time, as the rest of the band tweaked their own parts. By the time everyone headed to the studio in Bearsville, New York, with producer Steve Lillywhite, they possessed a clutch of numbers that had already been workshopped and fine-tuned. But the band members and their mentor did more than just set up a few microphones and knock out Crash as quickly as possible. They finessed them even further. As a result, the pizzicato-anchored contemplation of mortality, “Two Step,” surged from its delicate foundation, while the tryst-in-waiting celebration, “Say Goodbye,” moved with the same unpredictability and fun as the one-night stand it outlined. And the album’s eventual opening track, “So Much to Say,” got punchier in the studio, with drummer Carter Beauford seeming to fight his way through his kit. Meanwhile, the fan-favorite “#41” became more languid and mournful, with Matthews navigating the taxes of success, as the rest of the band rose to match his frustrations. But the enduring allure of Crash is thanks to “Crash Into Me,” perhaps Matthews’ best-known, most-debated song. “Crash” has endured every phase of coronation and backlash; over the decades, it’s been viewed as everything from a creepy bauble to a sweet devotional. Mostly, though, “Crash Into Me” functions as a thesis statement for the version of the Dave Matthews Band that came into focus on this record: Musically versatile and thoughtful, and emotionally vulnerable—but always in search of a good time, whenever possible.

  • Under the Table and Dreaming
    Under the Table and Dreaming
    Under the Table and Dreaming

    From its declarative name to its uncanny lineup, the Dave Matthews Band began largely as a lark. In the early 1990s, Matthews was a bartender at a bustling tavern in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he spent his time drawing, acting, and sometimes singing on the side. Some of his early demos caught the attention of a few sharp local musicians with some time to spare; in turn, their subsequent recordings—and their willingness to play anywhere, and cut loose onstage—caught the attention of college kids and jam enthusiasts at the edge of Appalachia. By the time the Dave Matthews Band signed a major-label deal, just two years into its existence, the group was already a regional phenomenon, with a self-released debut and a devoted live audience trading tapes across state lines. Still, the band’s rapid rise after the release of its sprawling 1994 debut, Under the Table and Dreaming, even caught veteran producer Steve Lillywhite off-guard. Matthews’ acoustic rock songs—backed by the restless drums of Carter Beauford, and gilded by the horns of LeRoi Moore and fiddle of Boyd Tinsley—sounded like little else on rock radio. In a voice that his critics likened to Kermit the Frog, Matthews sang of being your little brother (“Dancing Nancies”), of monkeys on a string (“What Would You Say”), and of long draws from mellow joints (“Jimi Thing”). These dozen songs helped galvanize the vanguard of a burgeoning neo-hippie movement, and offered hooks that became instant crossover bait. With its relentless snare thwacks and violin line that recalled an alarm clock’s call, “Ants Marching” became a rush-hour staple, a reminder that no one else really wanted to go to work, either. With its hypnotic guitar pattern and counting-game lyrics, “Typical Situation” captured the same mid-1990s malaise as, say, Pearl Jam (albeit with much softer sounds). There was also weed, optimism, sex, and a John Popper harmonica solo that itself felt like a party on a summer lawn. Given the broader cultural moment of 1994, Under the Table and Dreaming could have been an anomaly, a flash in the musical pan. Instead, the album became proof that listeners wanted an alternative to alternative rock, built on something other than groaned grievance.

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About Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band’s famously epic concerts contain the secret to their equally abiding career: an ever-shifting mix of jazz experimentation, funk groove, bluegrass folksiness, and indie-rock earnestness that promises satisfaction for both passing fans who want to sing along to a heartfelt hook and diehards who will stick around for the virtuosic third encore. Formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the early '90s, the group began with an unusual lineup—LeRoi Moore on saxophone, Boyd Tinsley on violin, Stefan Lessard on bass, Carter Beauford on drums, and Matthews on voice and guitar. After conquering their hometown's frat and bar scenes, the band hit the jam circuit pioneered by fellow travelers Phish to fill the improv-rock void left by the Grateful Dead's 1995 exit. But DMB eschewed the blues-rock bluster and prog whimsy of their peers, instead delivering easy-sounding but existentially seeking singles like "What Would You Say" and "Ants Marching," not to mention bedroom fare like "Crash Into Me." From their 1994 debut Under the Table and Dreaming on through the 2000s, the group enjoyed a hit streak that saw seven studio albums and six live albums go platinum. Meanwhile, DMB's onstage alchemy transformed Matthews' often dark ruminations—songs about colonialism, apartheid, and environmentalism—into celebratory and musically ambitious arena-galvanizers, such that between 2000 and 2010, they grossed more on the road than any other band. Moore's sudden demise in 2008 inspired DMB's funkiest release, the festively cathartic Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. The subsequent addition of more brass and electric guitarist Tim Reynolds made DMB an even richer live proposition, albeit one with increasingly rare studio albums. But 2018's downright optimistic Come Tomorrow confirmed that DMB continue to perform masterfully whether under dark days or sunny skies.

ORIGIN
Charlottesville, VA, United States
FORMED
1991
GENRE
Rock

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