Dropping Daylight are very much part of the post-emo era of American indie rock, with songs that favor anthemic choruses and jagged, distorted guitar parts. However, at the same time, the young Minneapolis quartet are in some ways a throwback to a time about decade prior to their early-2000s birth: leader Sebastian Davin's clever lyrics, rhythmic piano lines, and smooth '70s AM radio pop vocal style strongly recall one-time alternative rock favorites like Ben Folds Five, the Eels, the New Radicals and Fastball. Formed in Minneapolis in 2001 with the truly rotten and achingly pretentious name "Sui Generis," Sebastian, his brother, guitarist Seth Davin, bassist Rob Burke, and drummer Jake Englund quickly changed their name to the even worse "Sue Generis," and released an album under that name, Back to Nowhere, in the fall of 2003. Regular touring and a buzz-enhancing performance at the 2004 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin led the quartet to sign with the Sony/BMG indie rock imprint Octone Records. After changing their name to the still not great but much less awful Dropping Daylight, the band did the Vans Warped Tour and opened for a number of rising pop-punk and emo acts. Their first EP under the new name, Take a Photograph, was released in the summer of 2005, after which Englund left the band, replaced by Allen Maier. Dropping Daylight's full-length debut, Brace Yourself, was released in the spring of 2006. ~ Stewart Mason