Dallas Music Blog

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

Backstreet Boys (Orlando)
This Is Us
What's left to say about these guys? The high-school contempt I felt for them and the era of Pro-Tooled assembly-line pop that Lou Pearlman ushered in long ago gave way to a weary sense of inevitability. Judging by the few minutes I gave to this record, it doesn't sound like they're trying to reinvent themselves or the boy-band model--no guitar rockers, no rapping--which I suppose is refreshing. That said, the first two tracks are really dull, mid-tempo pop. Five minutes after hitting Eject, I can't remember a note. Also, multiple "Background Vocals" credits for Claude Kelly (who wrote "My Life Would Suck Without You") in the liner notes beg the question: why does a four-man vocal group need to hire additional male vocalists?
I made it to: Track 2

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

Breathe Carolina (Denver)
Hello Fascination
I've noticed that when a band refuses to list its hometown on its widget-cluttered MySpace page, it's never a good sign. It's as if a publicist has advised them that they can avoid being pegged as a local band and skip the dues-paying shitty club gigs to go right to the Warped Tour and sponsorships. That may be the intent, but it also usually signifies that the band could be from anywhere, that it won't have a single characteristic that identifies it as anything other than some prefabricated music-making machine. Breathe Carolina is no exception. The band's music is a horrid mixture of generic electronica beats with the alternating plaintive and throat-shredding vocals that characterize mall screamo. Awful, interchangeable, worthless.
I made it to: 2:00 into Track 1, "Hello Fascination"

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

The Jones' (Dallas)
down in my dreams
Frat-friendly acoustic Americana. The Jones' is the kind of band that uses an acoustic bass; not a stand-up, but a guitar-shaped bass--rarely a good sign. Perhaps that's a nod to one obvious inspiration, The Old 97's. The Jones' have a similar sound, except that they manage somehow to be at once less country AND less rock 'n' roll. Subtracting the twang, the grit and the clever lyrics from the Old 97's rootsy pop formula doesn't leave much, I'm afraid. But perhaps I was biased against this band because of the stupid apostrophe.
I made it to: Track 4, "I'll Walk Away"

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

People In Planes (Cardiff, Wales)
Beyond The Horizon
Underneath some interesting keyboard parts and a head-nodding funky drum beat on opener "Last Man Standing" is a hokey alt-rock anthem that could just as easily have come from this band's Wind-up Records labelmates in Creed. There are some cool sonic flourishes, but the band still goes for those cheap, overdramatic choruses just scream Modern Rock Radio. The album art is very cool, though, and nearly tricked me into liking them.
I made it to: Track 2

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

Late of the Pier (Castle Donington, England)
Fantasy Black Channel
Darryl Smyers obviously missed this gem when putting together his Worst Album Covers of 2008 list. Amazingly, the music sounds exactly like this picture looks: a hot neon mess of synthesizers, hard-rock guitar riffs, sound effects and cheap drum machine beats, shifting styles and speeds at a disorienting pace. In fact, it's almost too much to take in at once.
I made it to: Track 9, "Focker," stopping not because I wasn't enjoying it, but because I needed to catch my breath.
 

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

East of Eden Band (Austin)
Send In The Clown
East of Eden Band play blues- and jazz-influenced rock accompaniment as Hedwig Gorski recites poetry. The first song, "From Box To Living Room To Box," is a story of how she and a friend are invited to some bougie Yuppie's house, where she ponders on how their unconventional ways must totally FREAK OUT their hosts, man. Her intonation is so over-the-top hippy-dippy, neo-Beatnik that it sounds like a parody of bad coffeeshop poetry. Unfortunately, I think they take themselves seriously.
I made it to: the middle of track 2

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

Wild Light (New Hampshire)
Adult Nights
We received this one recently to preview Wild Light's set opening for Tapes 'n' Tapes Friday night at Club Dada. Music Editor Pete Freedman saw them at SXSW last year and was not impressed. Just a couple tracks into this unremarkable jangle-rock, I can't say I'm impressed either. They sound like Counting Crows or Gin Blossoms with slightly cooler keyboard sounds. Next!
I made it to: Track 2, "New Hampshire."

We've got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we're going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

Confusion Only (San Antonio)
The Story Of...
The Middle-Eastern percussion that intros opener "In A Circle" is a bad start, and this technically proficient, utterly dull jam rock doesn't get much better from there. "Singing this song for no one," Santana-loving guitarist/singer Steve admits. Someone take away his wah-wah pedal, please.
I made it to: A few seconds into Track 2.

We’ve got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we’re going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

This War Is Ours
Escape the Fate (Las Vegas)
The band is probably better known for the drama between the band and imprisoned former singer Ronnie Radke than for its music. That's perfectly appropriate, as the story of Radke's drug addiction, involvement in a fatal gunfight and jumping parole is far more intriguing than the completely generic post-hardcore alt-rawk the band creates. That's as true now with replacement singer Craig Mabbitt (formerly of blessthefall) as it was when Radke was still in the band.
I made it to: 2:00 into opening track "We Won't Back Down."

We’ve got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we’re going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. Some are left over from previous music editors, others fell by the wayside because they were trumped week after week by albums that looked more promising. The plan: to take four or five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

If you were expecting this yesterday, as promised in the print product's "Seven Days Out," I apologize for the late delivery. Labor Day threw me; by “Tuesday,” I meant “The Second Workday of the Week.” Anyway, let’s get to it.

French Horn Rebellion
French Horn Rebellion (Milwaukee)
Here’s how hip and 21st Century Robert and David Perlick Molinari, the brothers who make up French Horn Rebellion, are: instead of listing track lengths in the CD’s liner notes, they list file size. The first two tracks are relentlessly cheery electro-pop before giving way to the thoughtful but no-less-cheesy “You’re Gonna Know.” It’s slick, unthreatening, unabashed pop. Not my thing, but the kids are gonna love it. Oh, and yes, they really do use French horn—really well, in fact.
I made it to: Track 5, “French Horn Rebellion.”