The Forecast

The Forecast: Late Night ConversationsLate Night Conversations (2005)
Victory Records

Reviewer Rating: 2.5

Contributed by: KirbyPuckettKirbyPuckett
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on June 21st 2005In attempts to continually diversify the label, Victory Records have inked the Forecast, a supple indie rock act playing in the vein of now-defunct Vagrant acts Hey Mercedes and the Anniversary. The Peroria, IL quartet deliver a male/female vocal punch on top of their Mid-Western guitars. The crafti.

In attempts to continually diversify the label, Victory Records have inked the Forecast, a supple indie rock act playing in the vein of now-defunct Vagrant acts Hey Mercedes and the Anniversary. The Peroria, IL quartet deliver a male/female vocal punch on top of their Mid-Western guitars. The crafting of Late Night Conversations was aided in the studio by AJ Mogis and the influences from his past work with Bright Eyes and Cursive is slightly noticeable.

There is overwhelming potential for the Forecast to sound like a poor man's Spitalfield; however, three vocalists, including the female Shannon Burns, allow the group a significant level of creativity. Hampering that spirit is the vile recording quality on Burns' vocal tracks, as if her microphone is a tin can. The debut spans ten comfortable melodic tracks full of dual vocals, jingly guitars, and catchy chorus lines. While there are not many risks taken, the band certainly explore their talents, prevalent on "Excursive Demons" and "Sleep Tight Tonight," both tracks of which surpass six minutes and are not the most exciting, but retain interest.

Other notable standouts include their explosive introduction "Seating Subject To Availability" and "Fade In, Fade Out," an instant live hit by way of its chanting breakdown; both highlight the more upbeat moments for the Forecast and are sure to be found on a Victory Records sampler available this Summer. The title track "Late Night Conversations" is everything Midtown's last record wanted to be, but never quite achieved.

The Forecast still sound like an infantile band and often times their expanding musical style drys out of a few quality songs early on. Late Night Conversations is undoubtedly not one of 2005's pivotal releases, but for a debut it shows promise. Given the opportunity of better recording qualities and harnessing their abilities to write a solid guitar hook, Victory might have something on their hands, even though this is already superior to the majority of the music released on the label recently.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

xsummerxsaddismx (February 8, 2008)

most of their music isn't that great,

but i really enjoyed these lights,

Anonymous (January 12, 2006)

"y control"l by yeah yeah yeahs < these lights, y control shoulda been a single.

suopport the forecast.

Anonymous (July 8, 2005)

its a solid release. when every other band out there is trying to be the next big whatever its nice to see these guys just made a good rock record. reminds me a lot of some good 90s indie rock bands. ya know, back when indie rock was actually good... and not a quagmire of bullshit kids trying to be hip.

Anonymous (June 26, 2005)

Even though the review only gave the album 2.5 stars, I agree with the fact that there is a lot of promise in this band. If you have the chance to catch this band live, take it. Their presense and tightness on stage is something to be seen and makes up for any flaws you might hear due to recording quality.

rkl (June 23, 2005)

The Forecast - Late Night Conversations
Posted by Anonymous on 2005-06-21 04:53:32
My Score:

There's no such thing as an "8 star" you moron. Kill yourself!

score is for 8.

CantSitStill (June 22, 2005)

this band is boring.
the girl is ugly.
and they have a fat dude playing drums.

sickboi (June 22, 2005)

Wow Kirby, this may be the best-written review you've ever done. Kudos.

Anonymous (June 22, 2005)

What do you expect? it's on victory...of course it's gonna suck cock in hell.

-----Travis.

Anonymous (June 22, 2005)

if she looked anything like anne heche, i would think she was attractive. but sadly, she doesn't, actually i could give a fuck.

Anchors (June 22, 2005)

*Salmon.

God damnit.

Anchors (June 22, 2005)

What a group of toolboxes.

First we have Ann Heche trying to be badass, than Keanu Reeves attempting a Grizzly Adams look, then Seth from American History X ditching his canvas jacket for a salman colored Polo, and finally is Dan, Dan the Flannel man.

Please, she's not hot, in any sense of the word. As for the music, I stopped reading after 'poor mans Spitalfield.'

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

I dunno, she doesn't look too bad in this picture:

http://www.the-forecast.net/site/pr1/images/83910027. jpg

Kind of like a prettied-up Kurt Cobain. And nice skeletal arms.

-Chinatown

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

from the pictures i've seen, this shannon girl is actually pretty hideous.

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

dude, that girl has terrible teeth.

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

"There's no such thing as an "8 star" you moron. Kill yourself!"

I found this post hilarious. That is all.

MarkieStabone (June 21, 2005)

jonesy's back! huzzah!

stevejonestherealbones (June 21, 2005)

forecast: gay

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

Marlon (June 21, 2005)

Male/Female though!

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

That's just too much of a stretch. Dual vocal use? That's like adding that they play guitars... just like Jawbreaker!

Marlon (June 21, 2005)

Hey Mercedes, the Anniversary and Spitalfield sound absolutely nothing alike.

Spitalfield is hugely Hey Mercedes/Braid influenced, and the Anniversary refference is to relate to their duel vocal use. Also, even though HM and The Anniversary sound nothing alike it is still possible for a band to draw influences from both or sound like a mix.

For example: Volcano, I'm Still Excited!! can sometimes sound like Mates of State meets Hey Mercedes (two bands with nothing in common really... HM doesn't even have a pretty girl).

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

There's no such thing as an "8 star" you moron. Kill yourself!

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

horrible review, the only thing i agree with is that some of the songs could be reworked because they get dried out too fast, this is a solid release at least an 8 star. And why would Victory try to fill the void of bands like anniversary and hey mercedes (who were both on Vagrant records)/. I think this band shows some serious promise , i think its missing a keyboard or (insert unique instrument here).

~colossal bandit~

thefirstfive (June 21, 2005)

i love this record.

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

The only thing I remember about this band is that this Shannon girl is attractive.

-Chinatown

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

Hey Mercedes, the Anniversary and Spitalfield sound absolutely nothing alike.

Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

First