Cadillac Blindside
"These Liquid Lungs" CD (Fueled By Ramen)
Emo is ridiculously out of control. Even stuff that I could tolerate a year or so ago has just gotten maudlin and treacly and bland. Fuck it. Can't we put most of the emo bands on the same boat to the bottom of the ocean that the boy bands are boarding? I'm tired of this shit. For every somewhat decent band like Cadillac Blindside, there's a dozen whiny little shit-sucking, sweater-wearing, bad-haircut Weezer fuckups that want to get huge and smoke dope all day whilst they pine over a girl who would probably shoot them in the head, given half a chance. At one time, emo was actually about catharsis - staring at your shoes just didn't factor into the equation. Over the years, it seems that some people got the idea that emo was just about feeling sorry for yourself while playing folk songs. Luckily, Cadillac Blindside, a band that has perhaps been unfairly lumped in with the emo proles, has electric guitars and cares enough to use them. Between the time I started this review and now, a moving company managed to nuke one of the channels on my receiver, but oddly enough, this record sounds tougher - the chords sound far more gnarly, biting and crunchy without the melodic leads. Take out the melodies and Cadillac Blindside sounds like a really pissed off punk with a vocalist who can actually sing. And that ain't bad at all.