Days N' Daze is a band from Houston performing a type of folk punk they have called 'H-Town Thrashgrass'. Promoting a strong DIY ethic, Days N' Daze independently records, produces, and promotes all their own music. Song themes range from anarchism and environmental issues to anxiety, alcoholism, and parties. They are known for their energetic live shows. Days N' Daze have toured extensively in the US, Canada and Europe, playing anything from house shows to festivals, playing alongside the likes of Leftöver Crack and Weezer.Days N' Daze was founded in 2008 by Whitney Flynn and Jesse Sendejas who both grew up in Rosenberg, Texas, one of Houston's suburbs. They knew each other since high school and had been sweethearts before the founding of the band. In the beginning they were the band's only members: Whitney Flynn, with a musical background of classical piano lessons at a young age, followed by several years as a trumpeter in her junior high school's marching band. And Jesse Sendejas, a self-taught guitar player, who was introduced to music at an early age by his father, a Houston Press music writer. Yet in the band's early days the now characteristic trumpet sound was still absent, as Sendejas felt it wouldn't fit the musical style they were playing. However, he changed his mind after about two years of Flynn's persuasive efforts to give it a try.
Flynn graduated a year early from high school and enrolled at Texas State University in San Marcos. Sendejas, still attending high school, soon afterwards abandoned education altogether and joined Flynn in San Marcos, a college town both started to loathe early on. In the following years, still being a couple, they started touring extensively and recorded their first four albums. These recordings took place in a closet in the house of Sendejas' father in Richmond, Texas, the same place the band is still recording their albums today. It was during this time that the band grew by two more members: Marissa Sendejas, Jesse's sister playing washboard, and Freddie Boatright, playing the gutbucket. According to Sendejas this initial choice of instruments was purely a matter of cost. He and Flynn wanted to play punk music from the start but did not have the funds to buy expensive equipment like drums.
Eventually Flynn dropped out of university without a degree, a decision that has been attributed by some to the immense touring schedule of DnD at the time. However, according to Flynn herself, it was a series of circumstances that led her to leave university education. Among those were the death of her grandfather and the nearly contemporaneous separation from Sendejas as her partner. In the course of these events she left the university city of San Marcos in 2012 to live for a couple of months without a fixed address. Today Flynn manages Days N' Daze pretty much on her own and not only takes care of their finances but also handles tour booking. As Days N' Daze's popularity has grown over the last couple of years and management has become more challenging, Flynn mentioned ideas to continue her education in the area of "music business".
"We record everything ourselves; we book everything ourselves; we manage ourselves"— Whitney Flynn
Instead of quitting the band after their breakup, Sendejas and Flynn channelled this emotional turmoil into writing and recording their sixth album Rogue Taxidermy. As of today (08/2018) Rogue Taxidermy is their most regarded and top selling album on Bandcamp. The video of the album's song Misanthropic Drunken Loner has gathered over 5 million views on YouTube. The album was released the same year as Oogle Deathmachine. In March 2017 they released Crustfall, which features amongst others Leftöver Crack's Scott Sturgeon. The album title is a wordplay between Crust-Punk and a group exercise called Trust fall.
"Closure's overrated" — Jesse Sendejas
The dynamic between Flynn and Sendejas has changed considerably over time. While both still consider each other BFF's and are still both equally responsible for writing the music of Days N' Daze, a process Sendejas described graphically as two Maelstroms rotating against each other, it has become difficult for the both of them to travel in the same vehicle on tour without starting to hurt each other emotionally.
Days N' Daze have been playing in their current lineup since 2014. As a replacement for Freddie Boatright, who left the band after having a child, Geoff Bell was recruited in 2013 as their gutbucket player at an open gutbucket night, five days before the start of an upcoming DnD tour.[9] Meagan Michelle joined the band in 2014 when their then washboard player was prohibited from crossing state borders due to legal reasons.[4] Days N' Daze have an extensive history of touring with several known bands and artists including: Leftöver Crack, We the Heathens, The Infamous Stringdusters, M.D.C., Morning Glory, Night Gaunts (NZ), Cancerslug or Black Flag founder Chuck Dukowski's Sextet.
On December 20th, 2019 Days N' Daze announced that they are working on a new album. On May 1st, 2020 the album Show Me The Blueprints was released.
