VIDEO OF THE DAY: “WAKING WORLD” BY EL SPORTIVO AND THE BLOOZ

White Iris Records and Black Iris Music founder Daron Hollowell, the man behind El Sportivo & the Blooz, has followed up the band’s eponymous 2011 EP with the outstanding full-length Nights & Weekends (White Iris, February 2013). Produced by White Iris/Black Iris’s Lewis Pescacov (Best Coast, Fool’s Gold), the eleven-track disc delves into rockin’ country blues as Hollowell explores the pain of loneliness and heartbreak. “We live this life / but we always wanted more,” he sings on “Waking World,” an aching duet with Nikki Lane. “I wish I could change everything I say,” he adds in “Along the Way.” And in the closing ballad, the six-minute-plus “Blue,” he asks, “Dare I speak a word?” Loaded with musical references from Celtic folk to even a hint of Pink Floyd, Nights & Weekends features a crack band that really gets to show its stuff on the seven-minute epic “Underground.” El Sportivo & the Blooz will also get to show its stuff at Mercury Lounge on April 24 with Sons of Fathers and at Littlefield on April 25 with Lapland and Frank LoCrasto.