Truth in Advertising

D&D Sluggers
Fun is the Funnest! & This Album is a Party

(Editor's note: The sad fact of the matter is that I have a very demanding job which leaves me very little, if any, time to write blogs. I restarted The Midpoint with the hopes that simply having dominion over a small slice of the web would guilt me into regular posting. Several months later I see that isn't the case, sadly. I will do what I can, starting with my favorite thing to write about, new(ish) music! I don't care that it's almost March of 2012, I'm going to write about my favorite albums of 2011 in alphabetical order by band name.)

I'm writing this on a plane on the way back from a week in Los Angeles on vacation. I love Los Angeles, the good and the bad. It's funny how easy it is to get jaded with Hollywood, even as a total outsider. Everywhere you look, billboards, benches, signs, buses, are advertising the latest overblown television production or movie or album. These inevitably have millions of studio/label dollars behind them and are often utterly boring and like everything else on TV/the radio/the theater.

It's nice, then, to get a reminder of one of the great joys of listening to music in the first place: finding that new sound/new band you hadn't heard and experiencing a great new thing. I didn't go looking for Chip Rock in 2011, Chip Rock found me in the form of the D&D Sluggers out of Wilmington, NC. My wife bought me Hopscotch tickets for my birthday and I didn't know many of the bands. I remember being intrigued by the Indy's description of the D&D Sluggers. A game boy and a SNES used during live performances? This I had to see.

I left a lackluster performance by the Flaming Lips on the main stage early, lured by this mix. What I got was a high energy show with all kinds of sounds I had never thought I'd hear on stage. What makes it truly worthwhile, is that the D&D Sluggers quickly rise above the tempting gimmickry of their video game based sounds and deliver fantastic, well-produced songs which would sound great with any set of instruments. I bought This Album is a Party at the show, and it quickly became the album of the summer. I couldn't stop listening to "Very Direct". I still can't, actually. It's bonus level style backing track and pitch perfect crooning mix so unbelievably well with the guitar to produce a dream-like final product that's irresistable. Fun is the Funnest is their earlier 2011 offering, available for free download at bandcamp (click the link at the top of the post). The sound isn't quite as polished as This Album is a Party, and they seem to get the required videogame references out of their system here. It's worth a listen, but This Album is a Party is where their songwriting and attention to detail truly shine.

This video contains parts of "Very Direct," and "Receipts"