Friday Flashbacks: Dashboard Confessional

I know this is not posted on Friday but the post is meant all the same.

Recently I was looking up songs to listen to online. I sometimes have what my roommate Chanel and I call "song A.D.D" where one does not know what song to play and changes it partway through each song. With other six thousand songs on my computer I get this frequently. If this is not happening I am getting stuck on one song or band and listening to them repeatedly. I wanted to change this.

I had come upon Dashboard Confessional in my search and had fond memories of listening to their music in my early teen years. They are a band fronted by singer-songwriter Chris Carrabba from Boca Raton, Florida. They started in 1999 and have released six albums since. They have had one live album and five EP's.

The song I had found by them was "Stolen." In my search Internet users said it was a good love song. Interestingly enough I was going through some love song mix tapes a friend had made recently. I had not heard this song from them as I my listening to them declined after high school. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. What songs I knew fondly were "Hands Down", "Rapid Hope Loss", and "Vindicated"; the last one mostly known from it's inclusion in the Spider-Man 2 Soundtrack.

The chorus to the song "Stolen" goes, "You have stolen my heart." I can see what Internet users deemed this a love song. Chanel agreed. "Some of their songs could be love songs. A lot of songs in their genre of music is about love," she said.

They are an emo, acoustic, and alternative rock band. A lot of bands that formed around the time of Dashboard Confessional had songs in the same vein. The Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World, and Midtown, are just a few of them.

Watching the video for "Stolen" I did not understand it the first time through. It took one more watching of the video to get it and that was fine with me as I enjoy listening to the song. The video definitely represents the song well. Below you can see the video to hear the song and see the imagery the band put alongside it.

(c) 2006 Dashboard Confessional/Vagrant Records

I do not know what is next for this band. Their first album The Swiss Army Romance was re-released last November as a deluxe edition and Chris Carrabba planned to go on a solo tour playing the album in its entirety in support of it.

Now that I have regained interest in this band maybe their music will come into rotation more on my iTunes. Maybe they will be the thing to save me from "song A.D.D" or they will just become one of those repeated artists for a short period of time. "Stolen" already is becoming that. For now I may just listen to more of their discography and search other bands I have forgotten about since my high school days.

Sam Wegman [Video]

This is something a little closer to home. At my university, the University of Portland, we have a lot of on campus musicians. One of the more prominent musicians is Sam Wegman, a junior business major, from Seattle, Wash. Recently I was able to visit his house, interview him and listen to him play a one of his songs acoustically. See below to watch the interview and a clip of his new song "A Riddle".

More from this session:
Full Interview
"A Riddle" by Sam Wegman

Do you have passion?

(c) 2010 Passion Pit/Sony Music Entertainment

Have you ever heard a new band and realized you have heard them before? This happened to me when listening to the rising band Passion Pit. I had friends who liked their music but, as I did with Sleeping At Last, put them off as another band. From what I thought of their music, without even hearing it, I felt I would not like it. I should have known otherwise though because I have that same outlook with a lot of things in my life.

There was a day in mid-December when I was hoping to find new music for my computer. As I usually do, I went on to Amazon.com and listened to samples of bands I wanted to hear more of. In this search I stumbled upon Passion Pit. I decided this time to give them a chance.

The first song I listen to was “Sleepyhead.” I liked it but I was not sold on their music yet. I then picked the song “Little Secrets”. From the clip of the song I realized I have heard the song somewhere before. I still do not know where I heard it but I did like the song. With that newfound knowledge I listened to the full song.

It did not take long before I was on my way to buying the band’s album Manners and EP Chunk of Change. I listened to their music constantly. I even had my younger sister asking how many more times I would be listening to their album. I slowly found out that if I gave new music a chance I could find countless new artists. Actually, since then I have.

As much as this is a story on opening your mind to music, it is on the band Passion Pit. They are an “electropop”, or as their MySpace says “Big Beat / Pop / Soul” band from Cambridge, Massachusetts. They formed in 2007 and sound like a mix of rock guitars and synthesizers playing harmoniously as one. a lot of their music is based around synthesizers, samples, and piano. They have a strong rhythm section to back their music. Michael Angelakos, the band’s lead singer, has a prominent falsetto voice. In an interview with Rebecca Harrington of the Huffington Post, Angelakos said that he developed his high voice.

The band’s third single “Little Secrets” off of their album Manners features the PS22 Chorus who have gained notoriety from their songs on their YouTube page.  The chorus is also featured on their songs “The Reeling” and “Let Your Love Grown Tall.” “Little Secrets” is an electropop song played through a rock lens. Passion Pit plays as a rock band with more focus on electronic and pop music.

Currently the band is focused on touring but in an interview in with NME, Angelakos said he was already writing the follow-up to their album Manners. He hopes the album will come out in the spring of 2011.

I am excited for the next release from this band. Not only have I found joy in their music but optimism.

(c) 2010 Sleeping At Last

"Emphasis" by Sleeping At Last (November EP)