Lunch of Champions

Dormlife: My Dad Approves!!!

My dad thinks that Dormlife’s “It’s not me it’s you” LP is one of the better albums to come out of the local Chicagoland scene in a long time. He made me listen to it shortly after he saw Dormlife play a battle of the bands in northern Illinois. He even bought an extra copy of the album so that I could take it home and review it on Lunch of Champions.

My dad has great taste in music. He loves the Beatles, Moody Blues, Megadeth, Metallica, Green Day, and Lauren Hill. I trust him when he hands me a cd to listen to, because he is the man behind my musical tastes.

Dormlife – The Saddest Girl to Ever Hold a Martini

I remember a time my dad made me watch a movie called The Deerhunter, which won 1979′s Oscar for best picture. I was a sophomore in highschool at the time, and didn’t want to watch a stupid movie about deer. But my dad yelled at me and made me sit and watch it anyway (this remains common behavior in our house). Well, as it turns out, the movie really was awesome, and, to this day, I still thank my dad for forcing me to watch it. Other movies he had to force me to watch, but which I found to be completely awesome include Dog Day Afternoon, Quackser’s Fortune, and a home video on the Internet that features septuplet babies laughing at their dad.

So, with my dad’s endorsement, I listened to the album twice on the long drive home to Minneapolis last weekend. To date, I have listened to it 7 times. But I have mostly found myself listening to it in an attempt to learn what it is that my dad finds so compelling about this band’s music. I just don’t think the album is that good.

I found the musicianship to be noteworthy, but the band has enormous potential to improve in the songwriting area. This is not a dis on the band, but rather a request for them to keep plugging along and doing tours so that they may gain some worldly experience and write some stellar songs on their next release.

As the title of the album implies, this is an album about relationships. And, unfortunately for those of us who like a little variety on our albums, the songs are all sad in some way or another, and they make me want to cry. Except that after crying for 4-5 straight songs, I am left with no respite. Usually, after 12-15 minutes of crying, I like to get a drink of water or maybe watch some House. This album doesn’t give me that opportunity. House is left waiting impatiently on the tv. I can picture him glaring at me with his gray eyes. It’s like having that talk with your girlfriend. You know. That talk where she keeps talking and talking and talking, and all you want to do is get back to watching He-Man, but all she wants to do is to ask you questions about things you could never know the answer to. Quesions like, “Why do you do that?” and “Do you think I can understand you?” You know. It happens like once per week when you are in a relationship.

Anyway, I encourage Dormlife to keep on playing shows, writing music, and recording. Meanwhile, I encourage everybody to buy this album to support an up-and-coming group of guys.

Summary: Don’t have conversations with your girlfriend before or during House. House would not appreciate it.