d.b.s. - Forget Everything You Know

A few days ago I was talking to a friend of mine, and he asked me what my top album of the past decade was. I hadn't really thought about it, and to be honest, it was incredibly hard to come up with just one record. There has been so many records in the past 10 years that I have not only enjoyed, but I feel have helped shape my musical tastes...life changing if you will. So the next few posts from myself are going to be my top picks from the past decade...enjoy. (Some of you may have these, but if you don't...get on it!) I already posted Mewithoutyou's A-B Life a few months back, so I won't repost it, but I'd definitely say it would be on this list.

Alright, first up (although these are in no particular order) is d.b.s. - Forget Everything You Know. d.b.s. was a band I had always known about (they were talked about quite a bit at local shows, and had a bit of a cult status) but I had never really check out. I remember hearing some of "Some Boys Got It, Most Men Don't" from a friend and being really stoked on it and I immediately began scouring the closest record store looking for anything by the band...unfortunately this meant the HMV at Millwoods Town Centre, and the selection of "punk" music was less than great. I begged my parents to take me to A&B Sound, knowing that a lot of 'cool' people worked in the music section and I was bound to find something. I was looking for the record I heard, but all they had was "Forget Everything You Know", a 5 song EP. I assumed the worst. I took it to the counter and asked if it was the d.b.s. from Vancouver and the guy said it was, but it wasn't as good as their other stuff. Fuck that guy...I bought it anyways. (I was so punk when I was a teenager! ha)

Anyways, I got home, and plugged it into my stereo expecting terrible noise to come bursting from the speakers, ultimately causing me to submit to the idea that people at record stores are ALWAYS right. What I heard though was fantastic, frantic, and incredibly catchy pop music! This couldn't be the same band! I read the liner notes and realized that d.b.s had broken up and this was to be their final recording...an incredible growth from their punk rock days (Not to say the old stuff was bad, but this record is mind blowing!). The songs are incredibly upbeat, and immediately make think about summer. Great choppy start-stop rhythms, frantic drums played at breakneck speeds, and the organ! OH THE ORGAN! The thing that I really love about d.b.s. though is the vocals. Neither Andy Dixon or Jesse Gander were technically "great" singers in their youth, and the vocals are screeched, yelled and squeaked out. They're off key at times, and pushed to the point of breaking on every high note...but they do it with so much passion and honesty that you can't help but fall in love with them. This would be d.b.s' last album, and it actually feels like that at times. The band really lays everything on the table and plays their heart out, almost knowing that this would be their final note, and they had better make it count. Even today, this album feels like an incredible achievement for Canadian music and I feel like it's criminally overlooked. This record made me realize that you didn't have to be pissed off and screaming to release an intense and passionate album. It really opened my eyes up to other Canadian bands like North of America.

Funny story...Eric Clark and I both love this album quite a bit, and on tour we listened to it so much that we actually drove people out of the van and into the car seeking refuge. Seriously though, download this record....right now, it looks like it's out of print.
~AB

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