Sean Michael Dargan
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Sean Michael Dargan

Madison, Wisconsin, United States | Established. Jan 01, 1992 | INDIE

Madison, Wisconsin, United States | INDIE
Established on Jan, 1992
Band Americana Pop

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Sean Michael Dargan, THE BIG PICTURE (Slightly Charred Records)"

Madison singer-songwriter Sean Michael Dargan certainly works with a large canvas on "The Big Picture." There are songs on this album that you could imagine a big name singer covering. And there are songs that you can only imagine the distinctive Dargan doing.

The opening track, "A Note From the Heartland," falls squarely into the latter category. It's the kind of upbeat pop-rock tune that Dargan's fans have come to know and love, with tight three-part harmonies and the kind of acute, slightly cryptic songwriting details ("I met you half asleep in spectacles/Waist deep in bicycles") that have to come from real life.

"Little As I'd Planned," on the other hand, seems like the kind of generic ballad that a songwriter hopes to get picked up by a name songwriter. Nothing wrong with that, and it's certainly a heartfelt and well-constructed song, but it lacks the personality of the other tunes on the CD.

Elsewhere, Dargan and his band nicely play with textures on "Paint a Target on My Heart," burying the vocals under wailing guitars and off-kilter rhythms. "Dallas Morning News" is a countrified two-minute instrumental that I'm assuming has nothing to do with the actual publication.

Overall, most of "The Big Picture" harkens back to the kind of smart-but-not-brainy pop-rock that Matthew Sweet, the Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket had such success with in the 1990s. The formula still works, mostly because Dargan is such an effortless and affable songwriter and performer that it doesn't seem like a formula.
- Rob Thomas - The Capital Times


"Sean Michael Dargan, THE BIG PICTURE (Slightly Charred Records)"

Madison singer-songwriter Sean Michael Dargan certainly works with a large canvas on "The Big Picture." There are songs on this album that you could imagine a big name singer covering. And there are songs that you can only imagine the distinctive Dargan doing.

The opening track, "A Note From the Heartland," falls squarely into the latter category. It's the kind of upbeat pop-rock tune that Dargan's fans have come to know and love, with tight three-part harmonies and the kind of acute, slightly cryptic songwriting details ("I met you half asleep in spectacles/Waist deep in bicycles") that have to come from real life.

"Little As I'd Planned," on the other hand, seems like the kind of generic ballad that a songwriter hopes to get picked up by a name songwriter. Nothing wrong with that, and it's certainly a heartfelt and well-constructed song, but it lacks the personality of the other tunes on the CD.

Elsewhere, Dargan and his band nicely play with textures on "Paint a Target on My Heart," burying the vocals under wailing guitars and off-kilter rhythms. "Dallas Morning News" is a countrified two-minute instrumental that I'm assuming has nothing to do with the actual publication.

Overall, most of "The Big Picture" harkens back to the kind of smart-but-not-brainy pop-rock that Matthew Sweet, the Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket had such success with in the 1990s. The formula still works, mostly because Dargan is such an effortless and affable songwriter and performer that it doesn't seem like a formula.
- Rob Thomas - The Capital Times


Discography

Feel Good Hit of the Summer (2009)
The Big Picture (2005)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/smdargan2
Sean Michael Dargan (1996)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/smdargan
dance on the windows (1994)

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Bio

Sean Michael Dargan is almost too tall, standing six feet, four inches in his favorite black-and-white saddle shoes. His penchant for two-tone footwear and bow ties dates back to high school, although the nuns at Saint Camillus Catholic School say there were obvious signs as early as fourth grade.

These fashion choices left Sean with very few dates during his formative years, so he had ample time to practice his guitar playing, singing and songwriting -- passions he acquired after leaving behind his highland bagpipes, much to the delight of the entire neighborhood. After much research, Sean realized that guitars could be plugged into amplifiers, making them even louder than bagpipes; the neighbors again put their hands over their ears, but this time their toes were tapping.

Cut forward to 2005: Sean Michael Dargan is the proud parent of a brand-new album, "The Big Picture" released on his Madison, Wisconsin-based Slightly Charred Records label. "The Big Picture," Dargan's third album, comes a scant eight years after his second, eponymous album, leading many fans and not a few noted music critics to muse quietly to themselves, "What the hell took so long?"

Sean wonders if those fans and critics kiss their mothers with those dirty mouths. He then points out that even the Beatles took some time off after "Let It Be," so maybe everybody ought to just calm down and listen to the new album instead of getting' up in his grill about the word "tardy" and it's many possible definitions.

Fortunately for Dargan, the new album is really quite good, with a palette of twelve delicious new songs penned by Dargan, and one fine tune by his old school chum, NYC alt-country mainstay Chris Bonner. The record springs to life with the opener "A Note from the Heartland," a relentless, up-tempo, true-story rocker in glorious three-part harmony. The album then holds you close for forty minutes, tucking you in gently at the end with "You're the One," a gauzy, lilting ballad that features those same highland bagpipes that we thought we'd escaped back in the second paragraph.

Band Members