'Wattatata' you say? Seattle punk band returns for a CD-release show

At first, it's an intriguing novelty.
Young teens playing punk rock music with silly song titles like "Killer Gorillas," "Captain Pickle" and "Monsters Crash the Party" are bound to get somene's attention. That's exactly what happened to DEK (Don't Even Know) with their first album, 2004's Boner. There was media coverage, a record deal with California's Finger Records, shows with punk rock luminaries like The Skulls, The Adolescents, and Social DIstortion.
But teens grow into adults. When they do, the silly schtick alone isn't quite enough anymore. Sometimes, as is the case with many of today's bubblegum punk bands, it's clever packaging and studio computers that take you to the next level. But for true punk fans, the ones DEK aspires to entertain, there's got to be music to back it up. And it needs to be performed live like it is on record. Ashlee Simpsons need not apply.
On Wattatata, DEK's just-released follow-up to Boner - and also on Finger Records - the bands makes huge leaps to move beyond their Killerdom Kiddies status into the sanctified place where punk rock legends tread.
Sure, all the members are still in high school and the silliness of their first disc remains to song titles like "Wattatata" (featuring a guest guitar spot from TSOL's Ron Emory) and "Must I Squat," as well as lyrics like "I love bikinis/I love butts/I love campfires by beach huts" from the album's title track. But those adolescent moments are overshadowed by teens discussing their feeligns, issues and world events from a young perspective.
Topics like unsympathetic fathers ("Has it crossed your mind that sometimes I hate you? / And how come I'm your son only when I do well?") and the old breaking-up-is-hard-to-do standby, punk-style, of course ("What's this salty liquid leaking from each eyelid?") are present and thankfully outnumber the immature lyrical shouts between Bret Chernoff and Nick Myette featured on the last album.
Two years ago, a DEK song with the name "Do You Feel a Draft?" would center around someone walking around with his fly undone. This time, though, the song's an anti-war cry backgrounded by a chorus of "Oh-whoa-ohs".
The music itself has also progressed from three-chord exchanges in four-beat measures to mature punk rock with broken cadences, singable choruses and (gasp!) guitar solos.
There are still a few missteps and throwaway tracks but they shouldn't be long for DEK's repertoire. With the experince these troublesome teens (actually, the above-average students aren't much trouble at all) are gaining from touring with the big boys - like their upcoming tour of the West Coast with The Adolescents and their slot at the recent Warped Tour - the next album could put DEK on the map nationally.
By that time, the teen schtick will be unusable and the music will need to do the talking. If the progress continues, DEK's splash could be a big one.