Dashboard Confessional
A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
(Vagrant)

Sounds Like: Theme music to adolescent drama

Also see: Bright Eyes

Chris Carrabba, the vocalist/brainchild/writer for Dashboard Confessional, could be an evil genius.

Somehow, the man has found a way of extracting teenage angst, insecurities and heartbreak from America's youth. He then transforms these emotions into ambitious pop songs. Although this may seem like nothing new on the musical front, Carrabba has a way of presenting pubescent emotional insanity with such detailed clarity and insight, it makes you wonder how this guy ever made it out his teens.

Now pushing 30, it's baffling how he can still write about such dramatic textures of loss and deception. He portrays himself as a victimized martyr who is every bit of deserving of karmic redemption as he is your listening ear. By this point, however, most of his peers have managed to get over such things.

Putting words to the complicated head spin that is growing up has become Carrabba's full-time, late-twenty-something job. And he's damn good at it too.

"A Mark" has less finger pointing than 2001's "Places You Have Come To Fear The Most," leaving the listener with more confidence and optimism. While still containing the signature grueling self-examinational songs of spoiled relationships that has made the band, the album is peppered with tales of successful love attempts as well.

There is a pronounced sense of hope here that was largely devoid on earlier Dashboard work.

On the final line to closer "Several Ways To Die Trying" Carrabba screams that he's "dying to live."

Perhaps on the next album, this talented Pinocchio will finally get his wish.

-Kevin Smith

Sounds Like: Punk with ska, reggae, British influences

See Also: The Clash, Social Distortion

Rancid is getting old.

They've made six albums, and its members have been a part of many others in side projects like The Transplants and Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards.

And after all that work, it seems they've run out of things to say.

Mostly rehashing the good times they've had together, Rancid's new album, Indestructible, plays like a celebratory koombya sing-a-long for the four piece punk outfit.

While I'm glad they're happy, it feels like they try to match the formulas that made them successful, except it turns out a lot worse.

The single that's sweeping the airwaves, the brotherhood ode, "Fall Back Down", is the tamest Rancid song ever created. Not many Rancid fans I know are proud of the vomiting inducing lyrics, "If I fall back down/ you're gonna help me back up again./ If I fall back down/ you're gonna be my friend."

Rancid is a good band, and Indestructible is not a terrible album. The ska- reggae mix of "Red Hot Moon" and the organ filled "Arrested in Shanghai" are songs that would be good on any of their albums.

But most of the others are forgettable and lifeless, or are filled with a disturbing amount of f-words.

Singer and guitarist Tim Armstrong recently lost his wife Brody Armstrong (lead singer of the Distillers) to Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Josh Homme. He also saw a good friend die in Joe Strummer (The Clash).

It's refreshing to see a band that helps pick each other up after tough times, instead of trying to better their own situation all the time.

Refreshing·but not worth $15.

The Revolution Smile
Above the Noise
(Flawless)

Sounds like: biting hardcore, emotional lyrics, MTV stuff from the early 90's

See also: Nirvana, Helmet, Biohazard, Mudhoney, Good Charlotte, Blindside

Somewhere in between ear-splitting, grinding hardcore and emotional alternative ballads is The Revolution Smile, a Sacramento-based hardcore band and their new album Above the Noise.

Although the hardcore metal of the Î80s and early Î90s may have rapidly gone out of style with the over-the-edge dismalness of Tool and Korn, The Revolution Smile might in fact bring back the long-dead days of grunge-alternative rock featured in those loveable Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots songs.

Songs like "Bonethrower "are reminiscent of the early grunge metal riffs of Bleach (Nirvana) or even Biohazard, while something like "Payday" has the clean-cut lyrics of a Good Charlotte single. "Gun" is a smoky, dreamy ballad in almost a Billy Corgan style. "Future of an End" however, is a little too similar to Nirvana's "Pennyroyal Tea." Above the Noise is definitely a poster child of metal for the new millennium.

And this reformed metal head is stoked.

The album features a lot of the verse-chorus-verse and power chords similar to old Mudhoney, Seattle grunge style with a hardcore bite and inspiring solos that let the listener know that chord reputation isn't all this band is about.

The Revolution Smile has been picked up by the Flawless record label owned by Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst after RevSmile lead guitarist Shaun Lopez turned down an offering from Bizkit to take Wes Borland's spot in the band.

Lopez has impeccable hardcore credentials with his former band Far, and is joined by Tim McCord, Octavio Gallardo and Jeremy White. ÷Andrew Salvati

Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Greendale
(Reprise Records)

Sounds Like: Fuckin' Neil, Man

See Also: Neil Young (solo), Bob Dylan

He keeps going, and going, and going·

Neil Young is the Dick Clark of rock În roll: the guy never ages. His music has never become outdated or compromised. It's all timeless stuff that could've been enjoyed anytime during the last 30 years.

He continues to re-write the rules of how a stubborn soul can buck the entire music industry and still survive years after his supposed expiration date. The only set of people who live up to their last name as well as Young is porn stars.

With the war-torn work on 2002's "Are You Passionate?" over, Young has decided to create an album centered on tales of life experience in a town called Greendale.

Families and friends interact with each other, with Young acting as their conceptual narrator and voice. The songs are not stuck to the idea of Greendale, however, and each can be interpreted uniquely as individual songs.

This album pulses with an energy that was somewhat absent in "Passionate." It feels like Young has found a new muse. The songs seem to float over the suburban roofs of quiet Greendale, while Young plays the Pied Piper to the inhabitants.

As Young scores out the daily doses of Americana in Greendale, you realize that popular music still needs his cure-alls. - Kevin Smith