Shindig has been making people uncomfortable all over America the last couple of years. Main man Richie Ray has toured as Shindig for nearly 16 of the last 24 months playing shows with bands like Elliot, New Found Glory, Saves the Day, Thursday, and Fugazi. After listening to This Beginning is Your End numerous times now, I believe it's safe to say that Shindig scared the crap out of everyone in the audiences that bothered to look past the melodies and listen to the words.
Musically this album has a very Dashboard Confessional, Onlinedrawing, quality to it. It's a little more vocally aggressive than either of those bands but it is very melodic and largely acoustic. The vocals are very emotional but also very sort of passive aggressive. The whiny acoustic emo vocals we have all gotten used to the last few years are replaced here by a strong, almost threatening sounding vocal, reminding us that emo may still have some depth left in it.
Lyrically is where you will probably either love or hate this album. The press sheet calls the band "murder-core" and "music from a crime scene" and I'd say that that fits pretty well. Imagine if you're favorite death metal band decided to record a beautiful sounding melodic acoustic album but keep their lyrical content intact. Such is Shindig. There are more than a few songs about suicide. Richie Ray seems to be found of telling people that they will have to watch him die. "The Calm Before" takes a slightly different approach by declaring that "This time we all die." "Choke" is one of the standouts and probably the only arguably positive song with its anthemic ending "There's just one more thing, if you haven't heard. / I'm still here and you're still choking on your words."
I found this album to tremendously intriguing. I love Ray's sound and his great songwriting prowess. Every one of these songs is musically memorable and sometimes lyrically memorable. The same path is treaded over and over again lyrically throughout the CD and while it goes to uniqueness at first, by the CD's end you are hoping for a song or two about something besides murder or suicide. The music is too good to be this lyrically narrow-minded in the name of creating a niche for yourself.
I can't wait to hear more from Shindig and I look forward to their evolution. This is one of the most fascinating records that I have heard so far this year. However if you are faint of heart or suffer from any sort of depression, this is not an album you want to check out.
2.5/4
