Piebald

All Ears, All Eyes, All the Time (Side One Dummy)
by Evan Solochek

Warning: The following review is a typical, cynical music snob rant.

Well, okay a new album from pop/emo-punk elder statesmen Piebald. What Piebald has produced on their fourth full-length album is, in my opinion, a tragically typical pop-punk record. Granted, Travis Shettel’s voice and lyrics are not as unbearably whiney and nasal as what’s-his-name from New Found Glory, that guy who sings in Yellowcard, that hunk from Brand New, or that guy in Simple Plan who looks like he’s 13, but there’s still an adolescent punk undertone throughout the majority of the record that I just cannot stomach. I will, in the interest of fairness, make some concessions. Piebald does stray from the pigeonhole that I, however fairly or unfairly, placed them in a few times, such as on the bouncy, piano-driven pop song, “Haven’t Tried It,” as well as on the fairly admirable Ben Folds impersonation “Part of Your Body is Made Out of Rock,” and the earthy, classic rock homage “Get Old or Die Trying.”

Throughout the course of listening to the album, and subsequently the course of writing this review, Piebald has actually grown on me. Their sound is definitely not unique, but they indeed have much more to offer than the majority of the bands who are saddled with the pop/emo-punk scarlet letter. They’ve not shown me enough to make me a true believer, but there are at least four or five songs that I genuinely enjoy. Now I see the light. Perhaps my boss chose to give me this CD, as opposed to one of the pop/emo-punk princesses, Lauren or Jessica, because he wanted to soften my music snob shell. While bands like New Found Glory, Simple Plan, Yellowcard, and Brand New still, and will forever, make me sick, Piebald has taught me that maybe, just maybe, if I listen to a pop/emo-punk band with an open mind, I might just find something of substance and value.

But probably not.
(www.sideonedummy.com)