Albums You Might Like: This Euphoria by David Garza

My college roommate, Jim, had this cassette from a quirky, Austin-based acoustic trio called Twang Twang ShockaBoom. We listened to it on a Saturday driving adventure to Pie Town, NM. The album, Me So Twangy, was a fun, weird, and super-catchy set of songs. It was a bit childish and silly, but a great antidote to the dirgeful Grunge music that made up my music diet at that time. They were a southwestern Violent Femmes and came around a time when ‘80s college alternative was starting to slip into the mainstream. I went to Austin that summer in search of them to find that had already broken up. They had missed their shot at producing a real album on a major label.

Fast forward eight years later and the band’s lead singer David (Da-VEED) Garza shows up on Atlantic Records with a 12-song jewel titled This Euphoria. Yep, same charismatic voice that could stretch and sing all over the place, but this wasn’t an album of quirky acoustic songs and bad rap breaks. This album’s lead track, “Kinder,” kicks off with an echoey-drum explosion and fuzzy 90s guitar before Garza steps in front and center with a commanding pop-rock presence. This was a long way from Austin. And on every track, he holds the album together through a variety of shifting tempos and production with his durable voice and sense for pop hooks.

The best songs on the album demonstrate Garza’s vocal range: “Kinder” is a midtempo rocker, “Float Away” shows off his pop falsetto, “Glow in the Dark” has an almost Elvis-rockabilly chorus, “Discoball World” is sweet, fuzzy pop, and “Slave” was a pure pop single. The closer, “Flower” shows his gentle, breathy serenade voice.

Allmusic said, “Garza came up with one of the best rock albums of the second half of the ‘90s.” Agreed! His Best Buy commercial in 1999 made me think he was on the verge of something more, but alas, it was not to be. Overdub was a pretty good follow-up album, but after being dropped from Atlantic, it became harder to find his work or see him outside Austin. His 2013 album, Human Tattoo brought Garza back up to the surface with some really great songs and he’s lately been reposting songs from his Twang Twang Shockaboom days on Facebook. Garza also posts his artwork on Etsy. So, if you like singer-songwriters with pop edge and hooks or just want to relive the 90s again (or for the first time), give This Euphoria a listen.