For some, high school is one of the greatest times of their lives: keg parties on the weekends, skipping class to get high, losing virginity in the backseat of the family car, all the stereotypes. Yet for others it is a time of frustration, heartache and longing to grow up and to be independent. With their debut album, For the Attic, the band Damone captures these experiences all too well.
It is no surprise, then, that songwriter Dave Pino wrote the songs while still a senior in high school. Written mostly about an estranged girlfriend of the time, Pino wrote the songs some six years ago, only to rehash them with the vocals of Noelle, still a junior in high school, along with bassist Vazquez and drummer Dustin Hengst.
From the fist notes of the opening track, “Frustrated Unnoticed,” it is quite evident that the song was written by a young adolescent. It is fast, obscenely simple and has more “wah-oh” fillers than actual lyrics. Noelle’s vocals are raw and catchy, with just a dash of immaturity to create the voice of the perfect snot-nosed punk kid.
For the most part, all of the songs on this album are copies of “Frustrated Unnoticed.” The song “Feel Bad Vibe” has guitar-heavy accompaniment that becomes boring and derivative; an amazing point since the song is a scant 3:10. The songs “Overchay with Me” and “On My Mind” have eerily similar problems.
The first, truly down-tempo song doesn’t come until the final track, “Leave Me Alone.” Noelle’s vocals change from spunky and energetic to dark and mysterious. While the guitar riffing becomes softer and murkier. It would have been nice to have this track in the middle of the album as a break from the all-out assault of the previous tracks, but instead it serves as an abrupt end to an already unbalanced album.
Pino leaves no room for doubt or speculation as to the subject matter of each song. The song “Carwash Romance” is about having a fling with someone while working at a car wash–a job Pino actually had during high school. “At the Mall” is, astonishingly, about missing the significant other while they are at the mall. Perhaps Pino decidedly admonished any sort of metaphor or symbolism for artistic reasons; perhaps he can’t even spell “metaphor” or “symbolism.”
This is the quintessential album for high school freshmen. There are no subtleties or hidden contexts to ponder, and the album gives the average high school freshman a great indicator for things to come: boredom, pain and frustration.
