Deas Vail

This is still punknews.org, right? Listen, I don't care if you grew up on New Found Glory or Jimmy Eat World, it doesn't mean that the crap you spew out now in any way resembles anything punk in even the most abstract sense.

Deas Vail sound a whole lot like later-day Juliana Theory, and we all know that the only good thing about newer Juliana Theory is that you can say "at least there's old Juliana Theory."

Collapse is the Arkansas Quintet's teaser for their recently released full-length, All the Houses Look the Same. Having heard said full-length, Collapse is an accurate representation of what the band presents on their newest effort. That is, it's chock full of piano-driven emotional pop with a heavy spiritual leaning.

While this kind of music has a home -- a very safe home -- it's not between my walls. There's no edge to Deas Vail. It's completely safe music, albeit comforting and easy to listen to. It's got nothing to do with the band being Christians; they just don't offer anything other than smooth vocals and clean melody. It's not even as though you can fault the band for doing what they do -- there's nothing wrong with it necessarily, I just don't want to hear it, and I am willing to bet that the readers of this website don't want to hear it, either. Just because punk rock has become a catch doesn't mean that it's going to be accepted by the punk community.

However, there are people reading this who are going to dig Deas Vail. So here's the deal: If you bought a copy of the last Juliana Theory album and didn't pawn it, buy Deas Vail's music.