Duzheknew adds a new sound

By Cheryl Hann, Staff Contributor

My heart sighed, “Aaron Mangle!” as the beat machine behind Duzheknew drummed his arms to stubs, and then kept drumming, like that guy from Def Leppard. My hands were screaming something like, “Clap” while my mouth yelled, “This rules!” My ears perked up and my eyes rolled back. My body was being really obnoxious.

Duzheknew, a project by local screen printer Adam O’Reilly, played a killer set at Gus’ Pub last Friday as part of the HPX. O’Reilly’s guitar playing was frantic and, at times, awkward, and his vocals were a polyphony of howls and yelps. By all counts, the music shouldn’t have made any sense, but somehow the most wonderful melodies stood up and said, “Hey, check us out.”

Duz, made up of O’Reilly on guitar/ vocals, Mangle on drums, and Pat Ryan on bass are a tight three piece, but for the Gus’ show, which also featured a dynamite set from Play Guitar, and a just OK set by Irish imports So Cow (I missed the Quaker Parents set, regretfully), they added a fourth member.

Now, you might be thinking, “Oh. A fourth member? Probably an extra guitar or a second drummer.” WRONG.

For their set, Duzheknew decided to add a saxophonist. When I saw Dave Ewenson (co-host of the now defunct CKDU program “Let’s Get Baked”) step on stage and pull out his sax, I thought, “Oh no. This is wrong”. But it wasn’t wrong, you guys. It was so, so right. Which was weird for me, because I hate the saxophone. It sounds like someone left a window open and a really obnoxious bird flew in to die. But for this set, it worked. It added something; some unexpected, ultra-smooth element that changed their sound from “Yeah, we’re cool” to “Yeah, we’re cool, but here’s your dad’s favorite instrument.” Great set. Dads rule.