Frank Lenz - Strictly Background OST

It's hard to say that Frank's best work is a soundtrack but it's also hard to argue that it's not. Having not seen the movie I have no idea how the songs fit into a film but as an album it is a pure joy to listen to. Taking and improving the elements that made Conquest Slaughter such a fantastic, the Strictly Background soundtrack is a nice mix of great Frank songs and a short musical vignettes that inspire both whimsy and calm.

Certain pieces remind me of something you might hear from a Jon Brion score, well others feel like something you'd hear on a Charlie Brown special or an old school 70's episode of Sesame Street. The songs where Frank is singing sound like tracks that could've fit right at home on Conquest Slaughter and they feel like songs Frank has been posting on myspace for the past couple of years.

Frank has lived in semi-obscurity for some time and I know there's a small indie scene that loves Frank Lenz and the work he's done and I hope this soundtrack will help further his career along. He's a fantastic songwriter and musician that deserves a whole hell of a lot more attention then he's got. Strictly Background is an absolutely great album.

Map - Speechless

I knew that Speechless was a mostly instrumental record when I bought it but listening to it was still a little sad. Josh Dooley and Map had been one of my favorite indie pop bands and had written a ton of great songs. And although the sound is in tack without Josh's lyrics of heartbreak, friendship, and love Map seems to be lacking a huge element.

Speechless is still full of great Map songs and is a wonderful soundtrack, without Dooley's vocals the album seems weaker then previous efforts. Songs like Issues and Subscriptions, All the Wrong Reasons, Killing People on the Television, and Souvenirs From a Dead Empire are all winners. The album ends with More to Life Then Money and is a tease into what this record could've been with Josh singing another great Map song. It's a good record but doesn't have the same feel as the Map of old.

The Other Truths

I haven't done anything here for a couple weeks and that's on me. It's not like we've had great albums coming out the past couple of weeks but MxPx did release a new ep and they have christmas album coming out sometime soon. There's been a couple of albums I've listened to and have been meaning to write reviews but my personal life became something of a mess and this site got ignored.

With a long weekend and no plans I'm hoping to post reviews for the latest albums from Frank Lenz, Map, pg.Lost, Pelican, MxPx, and Rise and Fall. I'm also going to post a couple of top 10 type of lists.

At the moment I'm going to give a short review of the new Do Make Say Think album, The Other Truths.


It's a decent. Very enjoyable and nice. There's nothing offensive and awful but nothing really stands out to me either. And I'll admit I'm more into straight forward post-rock sounding stuff and I love builds and and moving grooving songs. But Do Make Say Think has always has a nice blend of free jazz and math rock in their sound that I've always enjoyed them as a band. But for some reason The Other Truths reminds me of Foxhole. Maybe because I spend more time listening to Foxhole then Do Make Say Think and the fact that instrumental music with nice trumpet sections has been done and doesn't hit me in the way as when I first heard DMST. I do enjoy the album and it sounds exactly like what I thought it would sound like. But... I've heard a ton of other post rock albums that I've enjoyed so much more (Russian Circles, Saxon Shore, Mono). Good album, nothing new.

Dashboard Confessional - Alter the Ending

I remember when Dashboard Confessional was just the solo album by the lead singer from Further Seems Forever. I remember seeing Chris preform to 30 people in a small church in Mitchellville, Md. And then I remember MTV unplugged and the emo explosion that found Chris Carrabba as it's poster boy. When Dashboard ditched the acoustic guitar for a full band I tuned out. I enjoyed Swiss Army Romance and The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most had a special place in my heart but honestly Further Seems Forever's The Moon is Down was such a better record and held such a place in my heart that Dashboard Confessional would always be out matched. And though while I've heard songs and albums, nothing Dashboard Confessional has done has hit a chord with me.

So Alter the Ending was posted on myspace for our listening pleasure and I gave it a listen and sadly I was instantly hooked. Chris and the guys in Dashboard have created some of the best songs they've ever put together. And although the album falls short at places, Alter the Ending kept me listening and enjoy most of what I heard.

Get It Right is the most spiritual song Chris has ever written, even more so then anything with FSF. Get It Right, Until Morning, and Everybody Learns From Disaster are 3 great straight forward rock songs that keep Alter the Ending moving. The albums first single, Belle of the Boulevard, a very pretty song (that sounded terrible on the Tonight Show), sound very familiar to Dashboard's last single, Stolen. I love this song.

The album breaks down half way through with Blame it on the Changes and Even Now. Although I didn't think I'd get through the record without ballads and acoustic songs, Alter the Ending had been a high energy rock record and while Blame It On the Changes fits, Even Now seems slows and misplaced. The Motions is more high energy but the record really peters outs and didn't leave me really wanting more. And I like Hell on the Throat for a closing song, the way we get there isn't very impressive.

Alter the Ending is front loaded with great songs and is a highly enjoyable record. And if you buy the special edition you get an acoustic version of the album. It's a different take on the songs and is nice but isn't anything special.

Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect

The Great Misdirect isn't the BTBAM you're used to. Colors serves as an ok transition from Alaska to The Great Misdirect but with their newest offering, BTBAM have gone into full prog-metal. Where Colors bored me, The Great Misdirect has grown and been an interesting listen every time through.

It feels less like a metal record to me and more an album about creating music and pushing musical boundaries and challenging themselves musically. And they've accomplished that.

The albums opens with Mirrors, a jazzy, slow song with a killer bass line that grooves you into Obfuscation which is the only track on the album that is most reminiscent of earlier era BTBAM. I really Alaska/Colors feel for the first half of the track. The breakdown is, again, really groovy and moving. The bass work on The Great Misdirect as a whole is fantastic. Disease, Injury, Madness has moments of Colors era BTBAM and yet moves away from that into more of the progressive style Mastodon has recently played with and into a realm completely different. Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain is their take on a crazy metal carnival that moves all over the place. Desert of Song is the ballad of the record, an acoustic track that might stand out, except that the whole record to this point has been all over the map and has defied genre that you just accept it as a good song. The albums closer. Swim to the Moon, is an epic 18 minute journey through everything BTBAM has brought you so far. It's hard to be mad with 6 songs when the songs average a length of 11 minutes and cover so much ground and is so interesting, far more interesting then anything else in metalcore.

The Great Misdirect is an epic masterpiece. It's on a different level, and although I love Alaska, The Great Misdirect might be my new favrotie Between the Buried and Me record.

New Music Tuesday 11.10

I've been pretty bad at getting reviews up and hopefully this week I'll get on that. I will be posting the BTBAM review later today. As far as new music... another limited and boring week.

Dashboard Confessional - Alter the Ending (Which I like a lot)

Flyleaf - Memento Mori

Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane

Alter the Ending

Sometimes I post news bits that interest me but I mostly leave that to one of the trillion sites that do it better but today I must post.

The new Dashboard Confessional record is streaming on their myspace page. And I kind of love it. Catchy pop songs always find a way into my heart and Alter the Ending is doing that. My on and off relationship relationship with Chris Carrabba is back on. Now if the rumors are true and he records another record with Further Seems Forever... oh my.

http://www.myspace.com/dashboardconfessional

New (Lack of) Music Tuesday

Uh... So the Joy Electric cover album is out today... and I don't have much to say other then it's covers of songs I don't like and that have been released within the last 4 years and have all had radio play.

The Almost have a new record out... but the Almost isn't a great musical endeavor and Aaron should stick to Underoath. But if the emo kiddies like it.

Some Nirvana reissues. This week gives me a chance to catch up on some previous weeks reviews.

Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder

There are moments when something sounds like a great idea and you have built in your head ideas of what could possibly be the greatest thing ever. Supergroups are like this. In theory the idea sounds great but I don't know if it ever fleshes out the way fans hope. Shrinebuilder is the doom/sludge/stoner metal super group featuring Members of Melvins, Sleep, Neurosis, and Saint Vitus. Sounds like a kickass band right? And you instantly have a sound in your head as to how epic and awesome this will be. Well never fear Shrinebuilder is as epic and awesome as hoped for and sounds exactly like you'd think.

Shrinebuilder is the band that features Wino, Scott Kelly, Dale Crover, and Al Cisneros. And their debut album, self-titled, is almost exactly what I thought it would sound like. Slow, heavy, brooding guitar lines, solid backbeat, and with Wino doing most of the vocals... the album is incredible. And my only complaint came before I heard the record and it still stands... ONLY 5 SONGS!!!!!! Now the songs do average 7 and a half minutes in length but still... 5 songs of pure doom metal goodness from the guys who have defined the genre... It's excellent, just not enough.

The albums feels like you're listening to a mash-up of the bands the each of Shrinebuilder's members are a part of. Pyramid Of The Moon sounds like it could've been a track off any Neurosis album or Saint Vitus' classic Born Too Late. It's 5 tracks of sludge metal heaven.