The Loop : Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album

Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album (2001)

Yet another "Oops, I guess I slept through this in High School" band that I didn't start liking until college. As mentioned in my Centro-Matic feature, I even had the gall to leave before they played their set at Marquee in April 2004. Major life FAIL.

I started working at the ASU radio station my Freshman year and after a semester of thinking I "didn't have time" (ha, if I had only met me 3 years later), I decided to take on a DJ shift in the afternoon. Since it was the middle of the year and DJ training had come and gone, the music director Albert (who has since become one of my all-time music gurus) sat with me and taught me the ropes. It was a rule that you had to have two semester's worth of a "rotation shift", which basically meant playing off a pre-chosen playlist as opposed to chosing my own mysic like I did on "The Basement". I sort of miss those days, I discovered a lot of great music because of it.

While I was setting up my playlist, the song "Pictures in an Exhibition" (off Something About Airplanes, which later became my favorite song of their's) showed up and I causally mentioned that I hadn't really gotten into this band. I then shamefully mentioned that I left before their set the Spring before and I was strongly encouraged to give them another chance and to start with The Photo Album.

So I did. I guess it was technically an LP, although not very long but cohesively just as strong. It felt very bass heavy and dark, with the same lyrical themes backing it up. The songs were bitter and biting, which was a change from the hopeful and nostalgic tracks that were coming down the pike and gaining momentum from Transatlaticism. "Styrofoam Plates" takes an explosive turn near the end, where you almost feel bad that you're intruding on someone's mental breakdown (although eerily laced with a series of "ba ba ba"'s) . It started a trend of me trying to find bands that were as deliberate as Death Cab, avoiding the noise of the ska/punk bands I had been listening to and discovering music that required a more careful listen to feel everything that was going on.

This album though, led to me collecting their entire body of work, and getting supremely geeked out when Plans came out in 2005. Death Cab unfortunately falls into the same category as Dashboard Confessional for a lot of people, despite them toiling away for over 10 years. They created mainstream momentum in very unconventional ways while still maintaining an element of cool for four very uncool dudes from Washington and continue to not apologize for where their music has led them.

The Loop : Dashboard Confessional

Dashboard Confessional (2001-2003)
Swiss Army Romance
Drowning EP
So Impossible EP
The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most

You knew this was coming, didn't you? Considering that the name Chris Carrabba and his project Dashboard Confessional have become synonymous with the re-birth of emo, MySpace, makeoutclub and other early 2000 cliches, it's no wonder why it would show up on a cliche countdown such as this, and with not one, not two, but FOUR albums credited.

When I called this series, "10 years of unapologetic albums", I was basically referring to these. Whatever characture poor Chris has become over the years, there is no denying that he set a tone for an entire culture of kids before the genre really had a chance to thrive all across the internet. It's easy enough to pass judgement on this polished yet clearly haunted boy from Florida, but as bands have come and gone through this "spit-em-up-and-chew-em-out" scene, he's remained the benchmark to what all sensitive boys with guitars are trying to be.

I found Dashboard Confessional after browsing the "get to know you" pages of my Horizon High yearbook staffers in 2001. I took note of most of their "Favorite Bands" and had heard of it through the grapevine amoungst my weekend-show-going peers. Then, in a period of disposable time (I had a lot of that, clearly) I was browsing the internet for "best lyrics" when someone on a message board (remember those?) referred to Chris Carrabba. I started jotting down quotables for my AIM away messages, the first one I remember being the lyrics to "Again I Go Unnoticed". My brother then picked up the album from Hoodlums and we began weeks of jamming (quietly) to Swiss Army Romance. While the music was nice and simple and catchy, it's pretty incredible to hear a record carried almost completely on the lyrics. He didn't sing any louder than most but the weight of the words pulled you through the entire record.

That being said, I'm pretty sure Dashboard gave me every single misconception I have about love. At 15 I was still a few months away from my very first boyfriend, which lasted a month, and when I listened to "The Brilliant Dance" about 95 times while trying to make it relevant to our lunch-time relationship. They were songs about loneliness and growing up, even to the point where he mentions how much fun it will be when we're 21. How far away that felt. . .

I also ditched my Junior year homecoming dance to see him play in the parking lot of the Bash on Ash (with Hot Rod Curcuit, who I obviously loved because of the Vagrant compilation) It was an overwhelming experience of every single voice singing along and feeling weaved into that live show, which became a staple of most of his concerts.

Sequentially, I went backwards and heard the So Impossible and Drowning EPs AFTER getting Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, but I'd say all the songs from all of these albums became a compilation for the remainder of my high school years and beyond. So much so that I really got burned out up until college and was geeking out on the train as I was preparing to write this during each song, singing all the words to myself, even after all these years.

For whatever hole Chris has dug himself into as far as the public perception, I hope retrospectively people take these albums seriously for what they were and the kind of imprint they've made on an entire subculture of kids.

Oh, and PS - I definitely sang "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most" at my Senior choir recital in 2004. Game. Set. Match.

(I'm also posting this video because I remember when they had the open call for this video and how badly I wanted to jump in a car and go to LA for it. Too bad I was 15)

The Loop: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak (2003)

There are a lot of things I missed out on having been born in the mid '80's. While I've taken bits and pieces of prior years music-wise, I have a very vague understanding of some of the artists that influenced my current favorites. It's something that has always bugged me about myself, and led to some pretty poor showings at Music Trivia Mondays at Piano's.

However, I can feel their influence within the context of some of my favorite records, including Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Hearts of Oak. This was a huge departure for me at the time as I was knee deep in ska music and bands like MxPx and The Ataris. Ted Leo had a tone of maturity in comparison, not only lyrically and with his fan base, but by the incredible mish-mash of different genres he laced through each track. It was an easier transition than most "grown up" albums I tried, namely because he had an entire song called "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?", which immediately won over my suburban pseudo-rude girl heart. Upon taking a closer listen, his use of upstrokes amidst heavy punk rock melodies made that connection for me who up to that point had only really heard things in three-chords. Ted clearly took notes through years of punk rock high school, drawing influence from The Who, My Bloody Valentine and The Clash. His trademark though, is the insanely high falsetto tone he dives into, often loudly (which later led to having to have vocal rest/surgery . . . always train your voice, friends!)

As the years progressed, I started to pick up on his many political undertones, those of which I can't be blamed for not understanding when I was 16. He's been more and more outspoken about it through the years, but I appreciated the almost satirical tone many of his lyrics had, even if I had no idea what he was referencing. He was unapologetic about what he cared about and that struck a cord with me regardless of if I agreed.

This is (yet another) front to back kind of album, starting with a timpani roll intro and a minute or so song leading into "Where Have All . . . ". It's impossible to sandwich the final track, "The Crane Takes Flight"in the middle of a shuffle as the string outro is downright chilling and final. In investigating his catalog, this album seems to be a step up in production and set the tone for his later albums, all of which were less of a punk rock mess and more to the point both musically and lyrically. However, I highly (highly) recommend picking up his previous album, The Tyranny of Distance as well as the 2004 follow up, Shake the Sheets.

I feel like I very much graduated to listening to Ted Leo, and he ended up setting the bar for a lot of the artists I came across later on. His benchmark has made him a cult favorite and one that will clearly been on lists of influences for many bands to come.

The Loop : The Format - Interventions and Lullabies

The Format - Interventions and Lullabies (2003)

I almost thought I'd save this until the end of this period, but putting on this album sounded really good this morning.

What is there to say about this record? I still remember when I first heard "The First Single" used as background for a segment on the TV announcements, and my classmate boasting that it was her friend's boyfriend's band. While I technically started on the EP, this record was one of those turning points in a lot of ways for me and my music.

I still remember buying this album at the old Karma Records on Thunderbird and Scottsdale Rd. (RIP) the day it came out. I had to quickly absorb it as many times as possible that night, as I was launching a new music segment on the Horizon High TV announcements. It was very lo-fi as I briefly geeked out about the band, then held up a series of photocopied pictures while playing, "Wait, Wait, Wait". I then ended the piece with,

"You should check out The Format. Why? Because it's probably better than what you're listening to."

And truthfully, it was. I had just started going to more AZ local shows and had a decent grasp of what was going on. A lot of ska bands and miscellaneous punk bands that they'd toss on national shows at The Nile. Jimmy Eat World had set the bar high for any band trying to make it from AZ and the scene lacked the infrustructure, despite the community slowly coming together. However, this record was a wake up call to me, and a lot of people, of just how much a local band can accomplish, and how great it could sound. Out of the hundreds of bands I saw come and go during my time at The Blaze, this is the one that started it all. They were the great hope of our scene.

Aside from their local impact, they made an oustanding record. I feel like I've mentioned a lot in these reviews about how "smart" a record is, but this one was probably the smartest. You can't fake melodic sensibilities like the ones on these tracks, not to mention how much Nate's voice stood out from anything else being played on the radio. The songs were lyrically brutally honest and it was yet another record you had to hear seamlessly from top to bottom. In listening again today, I'm hearing new vocal layering and certain new instrumentation, even after listening to the record probably hundreds of times.

You'd be hard pressed to find a 20-something from Phoenix who wasn't impacted by this record in some way, either when it came out or later on. I've been nervous even writing all of these thoughts down as I know that this record will mean SO much to people. Everyone identified with this music and felt proud to pass it along to their friends. It was so Arizona-centric even, that it referenced places we all knew :

"The 51 is backed up and too slow"
"Well I made my way back down to the Valley, right on past 83rd st"
"I need to get back to Tempe . . . down to the streets where we'd meet, the one's that keep me away from Glendale."

While the local scene has changed quite a bit and different genres are finding their way up, this band is still a main point of reference, even their new projects, post-2008 hiatus. I often times find myself with a constant medley of all of these songs spinning through my head. It just feels like home.

The Loop : Various Artists - Acoustic Christmas 2003

Various Artists - Acoustic Christmas 2003

One by one, with each of theses posts, I start to out-nerd my self. Case in point: I'll save you the story of "I was really poor Senior year of high school and didn't know what to get all of my friends for Christmas." story, but that's how this started. Half inspired by an acoustic cover I had heard of Jimmy Eat World's "No Sensitivity", and my affinity to making mix tapes (seriously, I carried a walk-man until college.), I decided to put together a compilation of acoustic songs as a gift.

And I did just that. I sat down for a few hours at a time and burned approximately 50 CD-R's with 17 acoustic performances or songs that were meant to be acoustic to begin with . I printed off copies of the track list at my Mom's office and took a bag of those and a spindle of CDs to school with me right before break. As you can tell, I get geeked out about sharing new music with people and I was so excited to share this carefully sequenced, mother of all mixtapes. I ended up giving most of them away the first day, and even had people I hardly knew asking if they could get a copy. It was really cool to hear what people thought about it and hear some of my most mainstream of friends raving about the Finch song they heard.

The tracklisting was by no means groundbreaking (see below), but all really great versions of these songs. A lot of these bands meant a lot to me at the time and pre-MySpace, it was cool to find this kind of content organically. I got lucky that they had just released "Punk Goes Acoustic" a few months before, so I snagged a few tracks from there, but the rest were mostly things I found on Napster when I searched "acoustic". I really enjoy the live versions of songs, like Oasis "Slide Away" and Coheed and Cambria "Time Consumer" (you hear some bro talking during the whole set . . . it doesn't get more real than that) It was a turning point for me with Elliott Smith, after hearing "Angeles" over and over while I burned the disc. The Jimmy Eat World song was actually an acoustic demo from a split 7" they had done and I made sure to include the ORIGINAL Dashboard Confessional "Hands Down", as it should be. I also included two "festive" tracks at the end, "Happy Christmas" by Five Iron Frenzy" and "The Hannukah Song" by Adam Sandler.

There's nothing really profound to say. Listening to it again brought back some really great memories of just the careful thought that it took to put it together and how exicted I was to share it. Maybe this year, I'll do something similar. But with less Dave Matthews Band.

Tracklisting:
1) No Sensitivity - Jimmy Eat World
2) I Miss You - Incubus
3) Time Consumer - Coheed and Cambria
4) The Space Between - Dave Matthews Band
5) Trust - Thrice
6) Angeles - Elliott Smith
7) Yr Letter - Onelinedrawing
8) Slide Away - Oasis
9) Creep - Radiohead
10) Cute Without the E - Taking Back Sunday
11) Letter - Finch
12) Hands Down - Dashboard Confessional
13) Looking Back on Today - The Ataris
14) Beauty and the Mess - Nickel Creek
15) A Whole in the World - Thursday
16) Knew it All Along - Midtown
17) Sympathy - Goo Goo Dolls
18) Happy Christmas - Five Iron Frenzy
19) The Hannukah Song - Adam Sandler

Acoustic version of Coheed and Cambria "Time Consumer"
(actual version that was on the compilation, complete with talking bro. Please ignore the cheesy picture montage)

The Loop : Centro-Matic - Love You Just the Same

Centro-Matic - Love You Just the Same (2003)

Senior year of high school, my friend Beth and I bought tickets to see Mr. Ben Kweller at Marquee Theatre in Tempe. We were both huge Sha Sha fans, and in typical high school fashion, we showed up when the doors opened to catch him. However, there was an opening band called Centro-Matic from Denton, TX (friends with Ben, of course). At the risk of falling into some bad cliche, it was one of those rare moments where you are immediately drawn to something on the first time hearing it. It was incredible. After seeing them and Ben, we decided we were fully satisfied with our evening and left before the headliner that we hadn't really heard of. Did I mention the headliner was Death Cab For Cutie? Yeah, I suck sometimes.

On our way out, we pooled together whatever cash we had leftover after paying for parking (even then! ugh, Marquee) and were able to purchase exactly one copy of their latest record, Love You just the Same. At that point, MP3 players were fairly rare (and we were fairly poor) so we decided to have joint custody of the album. The first week, Beth made a burn of the CD, but got to keep the artwork and look at it while I had the actual album copy. Then we switched. Nowadays, I can only hope to get that excited to take a night, listen to a record and flip through the album art.

Aside from that nerd story, this is an absolutely fantastic record. I ended up buying a couple more of their albums, but this has the best production quality and cohesiveness out of all of them. Will Johnson's raspy voice and singing with clinched teeth reminds me a lot of the singer from Great Lake Swimmers,but set to some heavier rock tunes and beautiful harmonies. I found out later that they had put out a staggering seven other albums before Love You Just the Same, and four since. They are very lyrically fantastic and avoid the folk-rock habit of hippy blues/rock jamming by keeping the songs short and strong. And as far as the album artwork is concerned, I still get chills and just as excited when I see it flash across across my iPod.

Note: The video says Will Johnson, who is essentially the brainchild of this operation, but this is "Flashes and Cables" from the album, just acoustic:

The Loop: Midtown - Save the World, Lose the Girl

Midtown - Save the World, Lose the Girl (2000)

After giving my speech about well-rounded music labels and how it's hard to trust EVERYTHING a label puts out, in the case of Midtown, I decided to listen to them because I trusted their label, Drive-Thru Records so much.

This record was a nice change of pace from the sugary s/t New Found Glory record that I had recently worn to shreads ; a little darker, a lot scream-ier and clearly more punk rock influenced. But by all intents and purposes, it was your a-typical, early 00's pop-punk record. The tracks were smart . . . almost too smart. . . well rounded pop songs with flawlessly cohesive lyrics. However, it was one of the first records that I had to listen to in order, or else it wouldn't feel right. That was due largely in part to having one of the best album opening tracks with "Just Rock and Roll" (touting the first, instrumentless chant of "God I wish I could hate you for the rest of my life!!!") and a simple, melodic closer of "Frayed Ends."

The irony in all of this is that Midtown ended up having a fairly bad, and fairly public, break up with Drive-Thru Records (see: message board flame war. . . remember those?), then releasing on a major before disbanding all together. The lead singer now heads up the pop punk characture, Cobra Starship, while drummer Rob Hitt opened up his own label and DJ's miscellaneous clubs around New York City. It's one of those "oh hey, remember when ______ was in __________?" kind of bands, but I hope the neon glow and MTV VMA nominations for Cobra don't drown out some really smart musicianship on this record.