Dance Gavin Dance
Downtown Battle Mountain II

Release Date: 2011 | Tracklist

You can attribute a great deal of Dance Gavin Dance's success to Johnny Craig's increasing notoriety after his exit from the band. It must have been a difficult choice for a band to kick out such a promising vocalist - one utilizing a new set of lungs, different from all the Anthony Green intimidators. And not just kick him out, but air out everything; outing him for seemingly being a complete scumbag, striving to bring back the embodiment of our fathers and mothers rock n roll era: doing drugs and fing underage chicks. The 'Rock N Roll, Deal with it' persona would do Johnny no harm but instead propelled his career; it was a breathe of fresh air from all the Christian, scene unity garbage. So, how does Johnny thank the ones who helped make him scenamous? By "squashing the beef" and revisiting DGD's early output.

Though, there was some road blocks - one being Kurt Travis: the golden boy enlisted to revive DGD after the risk they made by kicking Johnny out, and who - surprisingly - amassed a small following. He barely made the bar, providing just enough ear candy to carry Johnny supports to the next album and secure the inevitable new fans. Fans whined that it wasn't a fair trade, but Kurt faired well overall, and preformed admirable despite some cring-inducing high notes and some hilariously bad lyrics (Johnny's lyrics were pretty nonsensical and silly too, but you could account that to being waste, i.e. they were stream of conscious!). But, alas, more line up changes occurred, and more easily replaceable members were replaced until the last two original members outed Kurt for, supposedly, losing his range via smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. With their 'original' line up installed, absolutepunk.net and gang waited with baited breathe to hear the results.

And the results were good, though a tad predictable. Instrumentally, DGD has always been, at its core, a fleshed out, yet subdued, Fall of Troy wannabee with a strong emphasize on vocals. And on Downtown Battle Mountain 2 they continue to show case the same noodling guitars, and everything you've become accustom to and expect - it's just delivered in a nicer gift wrapping. The production has found a nice teetering point between Downtown Battle Mountain's raw - yet amateur - production and the overly clean production showcase on the albums that followed. With respect to vocals, Johnny detractors will protrude that he has fallen off or he simply isn't trying anymore - which may be true, but remember: Johnny is a rock star and trying too hard isn't cool. This is telling in what DGD was hoping to accomplish: retrace DTBM but with less emphasize on Johnny, since he might as well be a session member. That's why Johnny's vocals are low in the mix - this isn't his band; while Johnny's voice use to demand attention on the first two DGD releases, it now just accepts the attention. This shouldn't be viewed as a loss for DGD fans; though, it may be one for Johnny fans, who were probably expecting this to be a Johnny feat DGD (akin to Johnny feat Emarosa), when it's the opposite. Instead, Jon Mess is the one demanding attention and - for once - praise is due. The weakest member of DGD has miraculously revamped his vocals; doing away with his last, irrefutably horrible performance. Though being a capable screamer is no achievement, it's enjoyable to hear vocals that don't distract from the rest of the band.

Despite the twitter drama, and the unwarranted attention DGD has received, there's little merit in claiming that DTBM2 isn't a strong release, especially considering their peers. DTBM2 isn't a cash grab or a gimmick, but a band wanting to return to its roots, its birthplace, before dying. Don't be one of those kids that listens to watered down bands, like La Dispute or Touche Amoure, but stick their nose up at Dance Gavin Dance. Let Dance Gavin Dance in; let Johnny in. Cause while he still may be confined to the 'scene', and approximately 5 Rise bands, it's only a matter of time before Timberland catches wind of him, and he's off to LA doing radio tracks with Guetta and The Neptunes.

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3.6 great

Rank: #0 for 2011