Pitchfork

[Posted Wednesday, November 5th, 2003 06:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

According to Secretly Canadian's Jonathan Cargill, Danielson Famile principal Daniel Smith is set to release an album entitled Brother Is To Son under his Bro. Danielson moniker in March of 2004. A new full-length by the Danielson Famile, as well as a twelve-inch release on Burnt Toast Vinyl, are expected to follow. Meanwhile, Brooklyn-based film studio Creative Arson has been hard at work on a Danielson Famile documentary, and we recently had a chance to talk to director/studio founder JL Aronson, who was more than willing to comment at length about the movie and the band.

When performing as a collective, the Famile (generally composed of Smith and his six siblings, ranging in age from their early teens to their 20's) dress up as an assorted cast of doctors and nurses, perhaps as an allusion to the predominant theme of healing featured in their Christian beliefs. In addition to the buoyant and bizarre parade of sound which has become the band's comprehensive calling card, the group also delivers a notoriously wacky live performance. When playing solo as Bro. Danielson, Smith favors the homemade guise of a friendly tree, which bears assorted fruit of an assuredly delicious nature.

Aronson commented on the evolution of the outlandish and whimsical group, which began as Smith's senior thesis at Rutgers: "Though many aspects are collaborative, the artistic expression of Danielson goes back to Daniel. The first official Bro. Danielson release is monumental in that, after five albums, it draws a clear line between the different incarnations that have come before, and the solitary expression that is Daniel on his own. I guess it is rather complex at first: Dan sees the three incarnations of Danielson as representing the three stations (my words, not his) of his artifice: the relationship between the individual and the holy; the relationship between the family unit as a holy structure (the famile) and the relationship between friends which may or may not include family (Danielsonship)."

Obviously he's put a lot of thought into this. "It was an odd feeling. I didn't intend to be anyone's biggest fan, I just thought they'd be a good subject for a movie," Aronson told Pitchfork. "The dichotomy between spiritual firmament and secular enthusiasm seemed rife with contradictions and, hence, potential drama. But somewhere along this road I saw that Danielson was worth lots more than all the hype could add up to."

"The Danielson Famile Movie, when it is accomplished (after I find a way to get all my equipment and footage back from the pawnshop), will be unlike any band movie ever seen before because it will be as much about a family as about an artist," Aronson promises. "And despite the above comments, it's not a love letter, either. It is a collage of actions and reactions, intimacy and priorities, passages and reminders, rock and roll."

According to Aronson, to whom we are grateful for providing such an extensive account, the film should be released around the same time as the next Danielson Famile record in mid-2004. Finally, should you live in Chicago or Los Angeles, you'll be able to get a quick fix of the Famile at one of two dates scheduled this month:

11-06 Chicago, IL - Intuit Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
11-08 Long Beach, CA - The Queen Mary (All Tomorrow's Parties)