Ronnie James God (bad)

Play it: dios (malos) dios (malos)
Download: "Feels Good to be Somebody" (via Star Time International)

Dios means God in Spanish.

Dio means heavy metal in the rock world (Play it: Holy Diver)

Sometimes frontman Ronnie James Dio confuses the two and thinks he's God.

Last year, Dio issued a cease and desist order to the California band Dios, finding the names too similar. Dios reluctantly cooperated and changed their name to dios (malos). While it was flattering that Dio would consider them a threat to his magical rainbow heavy metal empire, the band was nonplussed:

It's pretty retarded...when we named our band we were thinking of God. [Dios] is 'God' in Spanish. That's what it means to hundreds of millions of people all over the world. It didn't really seem like there was going to be any point of confusion. We're up against rainbows and magic.
- dios (malos) bassist J.P. Cabellaro (Rolling Stone)

What the name change does, though, is give the rare opportunity of having two self-titled releases. Their last album, dios (Star Time Int., 2003,) was a well received piece of ear candy that showed a band full of promise with their late-nite haze version of California pop. Their second self-titled release comes out today and realizes much of that promise, dropping some of the fogginess for a brighter, clearer sound. Weird thing is, though, they came to Seattle to acheive it...a cloudy California band getting a sunny sound in Seattle... mmm. Producer Phil Ek (Modest Mouse, The Shins, Built to Spill, Stephen Malkmus) seems the perfect foil for dios (malos) songs about drugs and girls, definitely brightening their hazy sonic sound. Songs like "Grrl," "Feels Good to be Somebody," and "I Want it All" are nearly power-pop, and "Tokyo Sunrise" is a sunny 50's-style instrumental. Not all of it's that sunny, though, as the ballad "Say Anything" sounds like it'd work great for a Sunday morning hangover, or any late-night mellow fix.

In other words, just the sort of thing that would make Ronnie James Dio's skin crawl.

Previously:
Making time with Star Time International

tags: playlist, music, dio, dios malos, dios, phil ek