Sunny, beautiful, charming – it’s summery indie pop! The happy guitar tunes has been on our minds the last couple of weeks. The song “Campground Daughter” is absolutely amazing and has already achieved the “best-sunset-song-2005”! The band School For The Dead is from USA and play happy tunes about love that you surely will need the first days as dead.
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This is the second album from Henning Ohlenbusch's project, School For The Dead, and the first to feature the full band. The sound here varies from bouncy and catchy pop ("Photobooth Curtain" and "Something's Taking Over") to middle-era Kinks-ish quirk ("Pick A Gripe" and "The Wichita Train Whistle Sings") to lush country-ish ballads ("The Title Song" and "Candy Cane") and more. But even with the many styles on the record, everything flows together and works well. I can't really think of too many bands to liken this to (the press kit offers a few suggestions, but I disagree with them all), though the brighter songs remind me a little of Winter Vacation, and the country-inspired songs come close to Joe Pernice's ballads. I felt there were a few too many slower songs on here (especially towards the end), but otherwise it's a very nice record. MTQ=10/13
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Turning twenty-four was a sad day for me. Everything I ever loved and thought I would become scurried into the murky grey unreachable crevices of the past. It became a matter of fact that stretches of carefree, breezy New England summer days were lost in the flotsam of industry and responsibility. The slow and dreadful knocking at the crumbling door of my own mortality rang through my ears. Then I listened to School for the Dead's "The New You" and felt much better. Once you listen to this album Henning Ohlenbusch's friendly voice will punctuate your inner monologues forever. Some of the songs will make you happy in the way that simple things like camping and photo-booths do. And then some of the songs will make you quite sad because you remember the way something once was, but never will be again.

Not to sound hokey or anything, but there's something uniting everyone on this big old messed up planet...maybe it's just how we all feel the fragility of human existence. Whatever it is, some people feel it more than others. So, here it is, with mind-bogglingly clever arrangements and a collection of such supremely talented musicians, you'll start to wonder why you haven't heard of them before.
Someday someone should write a movie around these songs.
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