Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Sometimes, a CD makes me wonder, “Why?” Yep, this one did it. I have no idea why Thieves and Liars, a band from beautiful San Diego, could put out such un-beautiful music (if you will please excuse my butchering of the English language for a minute). The debut album from T&L, When Dreams Become Realities, is not one thing that it claims to be.

First of all, they claim to be a Zeppelin-meets-Floyd band. Yeah, right. I’ll believe that when the sky falls down and Zeppelin becomes Eiffel 65 and Floyd becomes Hinder. Just please… don’t listen to the crazy people that will try to tell you the random rumblings coming from your speakers when you pop this in constitutes good music.

The band is a trio. Maybe they should be a jazz trio. First, you have Joey Bradford on vocals and bass. Not too bad here. He could be better, but he doesn’t really ruin the music as much as some frontmen can – and do. Then, you have Corey Edelmann on guitar. Oh boy. Why? I don’t know how to explain how bad he is. I don’t even think he knows what he is playing most of the time. The guitar doesn’t match the tempo, and the vocals don’t match the guitar, and it’s just a big mess. Then, you have Mr. Kyle Rosa on the drums. This guy could be a star. Anybody looking for a drummer? You could have Rosa, as I don’t think T&L will be together for very much longer. What this band needs to do is set Rosa loose and let him go off on some of the songs. Maybe it would make some of this crap listenable.

As far as the songs go, there aren’t many that I would ever listen to again. The only one that I think has some replay value is called Alone, which could be about any number of things. First, I thought that it was about religion, as the band obviously has some sort of connection to the man upstairs, but I became convinced that it was about a girl before realizing that I don’t know what the fuck they are talking about. This is the type of CD you put on and then remain confused until it’s over.

Please…there are a lot of other great new rock bands out there if you want some good new music. Try out Saving Abel or even Miggs if you like slower stuff. I heard that the boys from Green Day have a side project called Foxboro Hot Tubs. Just don’t buy this.