Darwin Deez

Darwin Smith, like certain prominent musicians on the indie circuit of recent years, once attended Wesleyan University. Either there's an alien virus on campus that imparts a knack for an inventively catchy pop song, or it's pure coincidence. As part of the band Darwin Deez, Smith and his Deez-surnamed compatriots...

By Tom Murphy

January 10, 2011

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Darwin Smith, like certain prominent musicians on the indie circuit of recent years, once attended Wesleyan University. Either there's an alien virus on campus that imparts a knack for an inventively catchy pop song, or it's pure coincidence. As part of the band Darwin Deez, Smith and his Deez-surnamed compatriots first came to the attention of listeners outside their home town for the single "Constellations." But it was "Radar Detector" and its eccentrically amusing video that broke the group to wider audiences. With a guitar sound like one of those early '80s mod bands and an R&B aesthetic akin to that of the Dismemberment Plan, Darwin Deez manages to embrace a borderline awkward earnestness without trying to make a virtue of a false weirdness it doesn't possess.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker