The title of this little post refers to the band of that name, not the hideous infrequency of my postings here. I'm going to briefly discuss some bands I've come to enjoy, their latest releases, and my reactions to them.
First, A Rocket to the Moon. I really liked the songs I found by this "band," (see below for explanation of quotes), especially those from an EP called "Summer 07," especially "I think about you everyday." It's kind of melancholy, with that weird vocoder(?) voice thing, but very sweet and nostalgic. It still has a cool beat, though, and some substance to the feel of it. So, I was pretty psyched that their first "real" full length cd was being released this fall, on October 13. It didn't turn out as great as I hoped. I do like a couple of the songs, especially "Annabelle," "Mr. Right," and "Dakota," but they seem to lack the wistfulness of the previous songs I preferred. This is another example of a genre I seem to be attracted to, the "band," that is really just one guy, in this case a gentleman named "Nick Santino." As was the case with Dashboard Confessional, the addition of some other musicians to the mix seems to have diluted the impact of the personality of the originator. Maybe more listening is required ... that certainly won't be painful.
Ok, so how about All Time Low, then, since I did title the post after them and all. First, a bit of disclosure: I only listened to these guys because someone said that Friday Night Boys, a band I really, really like (more to follow), were just a watered down version of ATL. So, I reasoned, if I like the watered down version, I'll probably really, really, really like the real thing. So, I bought the CD of "Nothing Personal," their latest release. Why did I buy the CD instead of just downloading it, you ask? Well, I was in Best Buy anyway, and after the last few whole albums I bought on i-tunes, I was feeling the lack of the album booklet, which I like to read for the lyrics, and look at the pictures and whatnot. And it was only $9.99, same as the dl, so what the hell. Ok, on to my brief uninformed review. I like this CD quite a bit. The first song, Weightless, is clever, it rocks, and is very catchy in a non-frivolous way. This band reminds me more of Motion City Soundtrack, a band I super love, with literate lyrics and a vocalist with an unaffected, colloquial style, than it does FNB. But this (ATL) is a band with a history I know nothing about, so this is a rather uninformed judgment, I suppose. The song I found most powerful was "Too Much." I am prone to the weepy, the morose, the lachrymose even, so remorse-dripping, sweetly regretful songs like this are right up my emotional alley. I will certainly be exploring their oeuvre in greater depth. I also thought it was interesting that they started out as a Blink 182 cover band, you can still hear quite a bit of that in their sound, I think.
Ok, I'm signing off for now. I'll either edit this or add another post to discuss FNB, Owl City and Copeland. See you then, I hope!
