Dashboard Confessional's "In The Shade of Poison Trees"

Dashboard Confessional was started in 2000, as a side project from lead singer Chris Carrabba's venture with Further Seems Forever. Dashboard Confessional released their debut full-length The Swiss Army Romance in 2000, followed by The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2001), A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar (2003), Dusk and Summer (June 2006). Their latest release, The Shade of Poison Trees, was released on October 2, 2007. Dashboard Confessional has been one of my favorite bands for about 4 years now. They’ve gotten to be pretty mainstream without selling out, and Chris Carabba knows how to write heartfelt lyrics and great acoustic guitar riffs better than anyone. I believe the recurring theme for this album is "leading double lives". Some are “gilded” lives, others are lives of privilege pretending to be down and out.

“Where There’s Gold…”, the opener, features Chris Carrabba’s trademark catchy guitar playing and thought provoking lyrics. The mantra “Where there’s gold, theres a gold-digger." is repeated--it seemed to become more and more meaningful each time it was repeated. This song also contains one of the most amazing one-liners on the album: “Mistresses have all the fun, but no ones ever there to take you home.” It sums up what Dashboard is all about in one line. Simple, to-the-point lyrics, that are easy to understand, yet so clever.

“Keep Watch for the Mines” is my least favorite track on this album. I find the guitar rhythm annoying, and the melody boring and drawn out. This is just a personal preference, because this isn’t necessarily a bad song, I just don’t enjoy the sound or the lyrics very much—I’d call it mediocre. But it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to all of the other amazing songs.

“These Bones” is one of my two favorite songs on this album, mainly because of the great rhythm and melody. The lyrics are not very deep, but I feel that this song is meant to be loved for its melody and pop quality rather than its lyrical content.

Not gonna lie, the first time I heard “Fever Dreams”, I found it so annoying that I changed the song. Chris’s falsetto was so annoying, and I really just wasn’t into it. But the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. However, this was another song that wasn’t so gratifying lyrically. The phrase “Fever dreams can only haunt you ‘til the fever breaks” is said frequently, and I honestly wanna stalk Chris Carrabba just so I can ask him what the hell a fever dream is. Wet dream? Hot flashes? Chris PLEASE explain these things to me for the sake of us all!

We reach the halfway point with “The Shade of Poison Trees”, the track that this album is named for, and with good reason. This is my favorite song of the album. Chris really focused on the lyrics and let them speak for themselves, with just simple chords on an acoustic and occasional violin in the background. This song is so reminiscent of “Dusk and Summer” , the song that Dashboard’s last album was named after. Simple, acoustic, amazing. A theme of duality and secretiveness is prevalent with the phrase “If you knew what I know…” repeated in the beginning of each verse. The song closes with the line “As we lie in the shade of poison trees, are we as safe as we let ourselves believe?” Good question.

“Matters of Blood and Connection” has the most honest lyrics I’ve heard in a while, they actually remind me of kids in my high school. It’s the song that personifies the afore mentioned theme of lying, secrets and living a double life. It’s about privileged kids pretending to be of a lower class and pretending that they’ve been through it all, as shown in the line “Why do you speak with that accent now? Everyone knows you’re not from the streets.” It makes me laugh really, because it reminds me of Vanilla Ice of all things. You know, ice ice baby, the pathetic white rapper who pretended to be hardened by the streets. He really grew up in the burbs with his family, living a life of privilege.

“The Widows Peak” is about a guy who leaves his girl behind, “watching the ships come in”, aka waiting around doing nothing, waiting for his return. He promises that he’ll come home, and that their relationship can only get stronger with the distance, and it will take a hell of a lot more than 200 miles to separate them. So romantic and poetic, other than "Poison Trees" this is the best lyrical effort made by Carrabba in this release. Ships are constantly used as a metaphor for people, they are tethered, they sail, they wait. It’s a great close to the album, one damn good album at that.

This Song Isn't Really That Interesting, So I'll Just Make The Title Unbelievably Long To Trick You And Make You Feel Stupid Saying It...

Sorry I haven’t updated so long {to the 2 people out there who actually follow this blog}; I’m a junior now, and as the facebook group says, because of this fact, I no longer sleep and/or have a life. As I was writing a review recently, I found myself going off on a page long tangent about song titles, so I figured I would make my tangent its own entity.

Obnoxiously long and random song titles. They annoy me. Yea, okay, I get it. You want to be creative and abstract by giving the song a title that appears to have nothing with the song’s subject at all. Alright. But why not be creative and abstract with random song titles that are two, three, even four words long? Why should it take the same amount of time to say the song title as it takes to listen to half the song? {insert Napoleon Dynamite’s voice for the next exclamation…} GOD!

Seriously, how stupid do feel what you see your friends and you want to mention your new favorite song and you say “Oh yeah, that ‘If I Had One Pound For Every Stale Song Title I’d Be 30 {*breathe*} Short Of Getting Out Of This Mess’ is a great song!” {*sigh*} Jeez, what a mouthful, I need some Gatorade or something. I just feel really stupid, especially if they have no idea what I’m talking about, which is the case a lot of the time.

It’s like when you go to Ground Round {R.I.P} and you want a chicken sandwich and in order to get that sandwich, you have to declare a paragraph long, just stupid title to the waiter {who, with my luck, is ALWAYS an extremely attractive peer}. And, if you don’t want to look like an idiot {which I don’t even attempt anymore}, you gotta pull it off with a straight face. No matter how hard you try to say it in a different way, you always end up saying “I’ll take the ragin’ cajin’ rockin’ sockin’ chicken sandwich”—your face turns red, you don’t want to make eye contact, and your once enjoyable and relaxing lunch with friends becomes a mortification-fest. Okay, so that’s an exaggeration...

Another song title epidemic is the whole category of songs that are just “Untitled”. Wow, guys, you can assign paragraphs to track number 3, but by the time you get to song 9, apparently you are EXHAUSTED and can’t muster up the strength to find ONE word to describe your song. Come on! The funniest thing to me is when a song is “Untitled”, but there’s a subtitle in parentheses. Why do that? Here’s a thought, lets just forget the “Untitled” and just promote the subtitle to main title. I think the subtitle can handle the job.

I’ve compiled a list of the most obnoxious and awkward-to-say song titles in current underground music {in no particular order}.

1. If I Had One Pound For Every Stale Song Title I’d Be 30 Short Of Getting Out Of This Mess- Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
2. Lexington {Joey Pea-Pot With A Monkey Face}- Chiodos
3. Babay {Eat A Critter, Feel Its Warmth}- The Blow
4. Cut Down All The Trees And Name The Streets After Them- The Fall of Troy
5. Good To Know That If I Ever Need Attention, All I Have To Do Is Die- Brand New
6. Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us- My Chemical Romance
7. I Liked You Better Before You Were Naked On The Internet- From First To Last
8. If I Don’t Write This Song, Someone I Love Will Die- Hello Saferide
9. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm- Crash Test Dummies {not that long, just stupid}
10. When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under The Glass- Bright Eyes

5 Underground Singer/Songwriters Who Won’t Be Underground For Long

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly- Sam Duckworth, an Essex, UK native of Burmese ethnicity, is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Get Cape is one of the most innovative and interesting projects I have found in a long time. Since Get Cape is a one man show, it consists of Sam playing his guitar and singing, and working with his keyboard/synthesizer on the side. Duckworth is one of the most eloquent and creative acts out today, as well as an activist for many anti-racism campaigns, including one of my favorite organizations, "Love Music, Hate Racism". With a sound bridging the gap between Hellogoodbye style keyboard work and Owen-esque lyrics and musicianship, this is a guy worth checking out. http://www.getcapewearcapefly.com/


Bedroom Eyes- yet another one man show disguised as a group act. Jonas Jonsson, of Ostersund, Sweden, is a man who strives to make simple indie pop songs with meaning and melody. So far he has released the “Embrace In Stereo EP”, as well as the “Valentine Vacancy EP”. One his best loved songs, and my current favorite song, “Dancing Under The Influence” starts off with a banjo solo, then breaks out in all it's folk-rock glory, with an uplifting melody throughout. It’s a good time song, talking about “drinking till we can’t take no more”, a fun notion not many people would object to. http://www.bedroomeyes.se/


Owen- Mike Kinsella is Owen. For those of you who are into the folksy-rocksy, meaningful lyrics and existentialism, Kinsella’s your man. In “Bad News”, Kinsella explores the shallowness of society, as well as people’s inflated egos, stating that “Whatever you think you are, you’re not.” And “Whoever you think is watching you dance from across the room…they aren’t. If anything, they feel sorry for you, because you try so hard.” It’s that kind of brutal honesty and observation that Owen makes in his songs, about all different types of people, from pretty people, to ugly people, to people who’ve just lost someone, to people who are still looking for someone. “Owen” as he’s called, can relate to us all, and give it to us in amazing-song-form. http://www.purevolume.com/owen

Josh Rouse- not so much underground, I know, but still not well known on the pop scene, Josh Rouse is one of those guys who knows how to turn out lyrically amazing, melodically moving folksy songs one after the other, and very rarely does he produce a dud. With his nerdy-cute looks and his timid voice, Rouse feels like a close friend as he tells you stories about past relationships (his album “Under The Cold Blue Stars” narrates an entire relationship, starting with falling in love, and ending in pain), places he’s been, and where he wants to go. Rouse is personally my favorite artist for all of the above reasons. http://www.joshrouse.com/


Dave Melillo- first seen on the underground music "cult" movie “Bastards Of Young”, where he performed “Wait For It” as an impromptu audition for Drive-Thru record owners Richard and Stefanie Reines, Dave Melillo is an 18 year old phenom on the underground scene. With his dark curly hair and puppy dog eyes, girls swoon before he even opens his mouth, and once he does, they’re hooked for life. With only one EP out so far (“Talk Is Cheap”), Melillo’s true-life songs about teenage love and angst are a hit with indie music fans everywhere. Melillo pens honest and heartfelt lyrics about how everyone screws up[including his own gender “Vatican Roulette” is a perfect example of this]. http://www.davemelillo.com/

Evolving Musicians Pt. II

This is the continuation of my two-part feature on artists that have flourished in solo or side projects.

Cobra Starship- I know you’re reading this and thinking Cobra Starship is SO not underground anymore! Well I like them, so I’m writing about them. And if you were living “underground” [pun intended] and didn’t hear “Snakes on a Plane {Bring It}”, you’ve discovered a new artist; good for you!

Anyway, I loved Gabe Sporta in Midtown. “Sacrifice of Life” was the first song that every got me hardcore-dancing [spastically, obviously]. I hadn’t seen or heard from him in a while, then I turn on FUSE, and there he is, rockin’ out with William Beckett and Travis McCoy saying he’s “ready for it” and yelling for me to “bring it”. Bring what? I dunno. But when Gabe commands, I obey. Anyway, Cobra Starship is their name, and indie pop songs are their game. So since when does Gabe sing such happy music? Once again, another artist who expands his horizons and goes in a completely different direction, now telling the emo kids to quote: “stop being pussies”, instead of being one of them. I was obsessed with “Snakes on a Plane {Bring It}”, like everyone else on the planet, until I realized that “Send My Love to the Dance Floor, I'll See You in Hell {Hey Mr. DJ}" was my true love, of all of their songs. Their new video for the song is entertaining and innovative, much like the band and the man behind [or in front, depending on how you look at it] it.

I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business- Arthur “Ace” Enders of The Early November, an adorable and sensitive guy that knows how to rock out but also knows how to go acoustic [and apparently garden according to the pic on the left], is an amazing voice in popular emo music. Enders first started this project he says, because “I wanted to go back to the time when music was the only thing that mattered, not all of the other messy things that come with it,”. Now that the Early November “won’t be doing the music thing for a while”, according to their website, Ace is going full speed ahead with his side project. With similar songs to his work with The Early November with a more folksy yet upbeat sound, Enders addresses the greed and shallowness of society like in “The Best Happiness Money Can Buy”, where he states “It’s the one who stole your father’s pride, that might mighty dollar sign”; as well as addressing people’s desires to be one of the “beautiful people”, like in “Salvy”.

Evolving Musicians Pt. I

This is a two-part feature on musicians who have gone solo/are involved in other projects.

She’s Spanish, I’m American- Josh Rouse, one of my favorite artists of all time, along with long time girlfriend Paz Suay make up the multi-cultural duo of She’s Spanish, I’m American. With catchy pop-inspired tunes, Rouse takes a backseat to Suay with most of the vocals, but takes control with writing the captivating songs that are far more poppy than most would expect from Rouse. Suay brings Rouse’s work to life with an airy, Peruvian-flavored voice. But don’t think you need to be into Selena and J.Lo’s new album to be into Paz Suay. I’m not into the whole “Latin Fusion” style of music myself, but for these two it totally works. “Answers”, from their self titled debut, features Rouse and Suay as a couple, singing almost equal amounts, although this is not consistent throughout their entire self titled EP. http://www.myspace.com/shesspanishimamerican

The Almost- Underoath. The not-so-underground-anymore, once amazing, now kind of cliché screamo band, has one of, if not the most multi-talented drummers in rock music today [at least in my opinion]. Known as “Piggy” by his Underoath band mates, Aaron Gillespie is one of the best drummers in his genre, and one of my favorite voices. I personally have been waiting a long time for Aaron to follow in the footsteps of fellow drummer-turned-front man Dave Grohl, and step out from behind the drum kit; one reason being that he’s just so damn cute, and the other, obviously, because he’s just so damn talented. Aaron took all of his musical prowess, and with the encouragement of his wife, created “Southern Weather”, a good ‘ol pop/rock album, a far cry from his work in Underoath. This record is the definition of a solo project, with Aaron playing all of the major instruments, leaving only keyboards and string arrangements to other musicians. I really enjoy their debut album, especially “Drive There Now”, where we get to hear the full spectrum of Aaron’s range and an intense yet soothing jolt from relaxing verses to an intense chorus. http://www.thealmost.com/

Dustin Kensrue- Dustin Kensrue of Thrice has had a solo career for quite a while now, formerly going by the title “Ursus Verditas”, meaning “bear truth”. I just started listening to his solo work about a month ago, so far, I’m lovin’ it [no, I do not endorse McDonalds, but their fries own me]. Once known as the voice of a hardcore/screamo scene, Kensrue has stopped screaming and picked up the acoustic and his harmonica, and has really showcased his God-given talent for storytelling in an honest and musically fulfilling manner. When asked about what he wanted to achieve with his solo career, Kensrue stated “I get a little heady with the Thrice songs. And I like doing that—I think people like engaging in that—but I wanted these to be more folky, in the sense that this is music coming from a natural place.” When I first heard “Pistol” [my current favorite song of his], I thought to myself “Is this the same Dustin Kensrue that was screaming his lungs out in Thrice?!” And it’s hard to believe, but yes, it is the same multi-faceted, mutli-talented guy as we knew and loved before, just showing us a new reason to love him. Check him out if you’re into Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst, David Dondero, An Angle, and Owen. http://www.dustinkensrue.com/

Album Review: Rooney's "Calling The World"

Artist/Album: Rooney- "Calling the World"
Released: July 17, 2007
Rating: 8.5/10

Rooney’s highly anticipated new album, “Calling The World” gives their usual old school rock and roll vibe, with the same catchy, poppy undertones Rooney gave us in their debut album. With Robbie Carmine(also known as Robert Schwartzman)’s smooth and signature voice, along with Ned Brower’s intense drumming and Louie Stevens’ keyboard and tambourine prowess, Rooney is an amazing combination of the rock and roll sounds of the 60s and 70s melded with the pop rock of their contemporary counterparts: a hard thing to find in the music world today. I've covered the best and the worst in this review.

The record starts off with various [obnoxious] ringtones being set off in their album opener, “Calling the World”; a slightly [well, very] corny beginning to a pretty solid song. Though the verses are upbeat, the chorus is very reminiscent of melodies used in the doo-wop songs of yesteryear.

"When Did Your Heart Go Missing?" is an upbeat, poppy song about a nice girl gone mean. this song is the most bubblegummy, happy song on the album, and it can make the most miserable adolescent in the room shake her groove thang.

“Tell Me Soon” was released on the down low months ago, and for those Rooney fans who came across it during its limited release on the web, it was quite lame. With children singing the chorus, it sounded much like the chorus of eight year olds in church who don’t know how to sing but whose parents force them to “participate” in Mass. Re-recorded for the album’s release, however, it sounds much more polished, and thank God (pun intended) the boys of Rooney finally came to their senses and decided to nix the whole kiddy-chorus bit; now having Ned, Taylor, and Robbie sing in unison instead of 100 first graders.

“Don’t Come Around Again” brings to mind if/when a boy bands tries to write a “bad ass” tune. The pre-pubescent lead singer singing in a lower register, a put-on scratchy voice...The clean-cut five-some telling me repeatedly not to come around again is just annoying---they don’t sound angry or the least bit intimidating. By far my least favorite song.

For those of you who own Rooney’s concert DVD [Spit & Sweat], you’ve seen Rooney perform “Paralyzed” with special guest Allison Robertson from The Donnas, playing guitar and CLAPPING with Rooney guitarist Taylor Locke. That’s right. The boys from Rooney have re-instated the “clap” as an instrument. Disappointingly though, they didn’t clap in the album version. They nixed that idea along with the singing kiddies. In this song, apparently Robbie "can't feel his coccyx". What happened? Only Robbie and his coccyx know.

The album closes out with one of the few Rooney songs with a more serious subject and sound, and it’s really the first time in two albums and 24 songs that Rooney has really gotten serious. In “Help Me Find My Way”, Robbie’s voice is just heaven, making teenage girls everywhere swoon. They went all out for this one, with the string instruments in the background and a serious tone in Robbie’s voice.

Rooney’s “Calling the World” earns an 8.5/10 from me. With it catchy melodies and classic rock flair, this is definitely one to keep on repeat for a while.