Taking Back Sunday
Tell All Your Friends
 Taking Back Sunday is probably one of those "next big thing" bands with great haircuts and sideburns. Of course, TBS might deserve the hype, alongside bands like the Get Up Kids, Dashboard Confessional, and Saves the Day. Their album is earnest in its rocking fashion -- songs are catchy but not pretentious. TBS blends just the right of emo and rock to be enjoyable without being corny. Vocal harmonies are excellent and songs never waste notes. Overall, a good album by a band that just might hit the big time. (KM)
(Victory Records -- 346 N. Justine, Suite 504, Chicago, IL. 60607; http://www.victoryrecords.com/; Taking Back Sunday -- http://www.takingbacksunday.com/)
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Thinking Day Rally
Into the Blue Room
Thinking Day Rally play evocative and emotion music that mixes piano, guitar, bass and drums. Track one, "Trigger," is a mellow piano ballad, something like an indie Ben Folds or a lounge-y Tears for Fears. Vocally, this sounds a lot like Roland Orzabal and lyrically like Ben Folds Five's "Brick." The whole album stays with this vibe, always keeping things understated and low.
What I like about this album is that it works well as a whole. All the parts fit together nicely. Check out the exceptional harmonies on "The Ride," or the excellent interplay between piano and guitar on "French Town." Arrangement is a lost art these days, and Thinking Day Rally excel at it. This alone makes up for the cloudy recording and sometimes out-of-tune vocals. An indie reference for this band might be the mellower songs of Vagrant's Koufax, as Thinking Day Rally actually reminds me of what might be Koufax demos minus the synths and slick. It wouldn't surprise me if a label didn't hear this record and decide to re-record it in a nice studio for release -- now, that would be a great record. (KM)
(Brave Noise Records -- P.O. Box 2268, Brandon, FL. 33509-2268; http://www.bravenoiserecords.com/)
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This Beautiful Mess
Falling On Deaf Ears
There's an episode of "The Kids In The Hall" that features Bruce McCullough as a basement rocker that has to go up against Mark McKinney's Satan (who also plays guitar). When Satan shows up, McCullough's character is jamming in the basement, "working on sound shapes." These "sound shapes" are perhaps the best descriptor I can come up with for the sound of This Beautiful Mess. This group of Dutch rockers present you with the best sprawling, ethereal, rock-fused-with-electronic-textures album that Radiohead never made. Falling On Deaf Ears succeeds at this paradigm where others have failed, mainly due to the fact that amidst all of the aural experimentation, there remains a distinct pop sensibility. Besides Radiohead, I also picked out parallels to Elliot, The Flaming Lips, newer Tool, and at times, TBM even evoke the spectre of U2. If you're up for something a little different, yet comfortably familiar, definitely check them out. Oh, and Bruce McCullough won by using the unbeatable power of the Wah pedal. (MHo)
(Deep Elm Records -- P.O. Box 36939, Charlotte, NC. 28236; http://www.deepelm.com/; This Beautiful Mess -- http://www.thisbeautifulmess.net/)
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