another GD further seems forever record

Further Seems Forever
"The Final Curtain"
(567 Records)

Further Seems Forever is one release away from being the 2Pac of rock bands, inasmuch as they continue to release material from beyond the grave. While they're not quite up to snuff with someone like Mac Dre, it's possible that they could chop up lyrical pieces over new music or find some way to keep releasing the same 15 songs, Dashboard-style.

This second posthemous collection, "The Final Curtain," combines the band's final performance with b-sides, their first EP and a DVD. Like their Tooth and Nail-officiated swan swan song, "Hope This Finds You Well," it's really more of a reissue of the all the songs that a fan would already have. The DVD is pretty subpar considering that the band could've taken a few more months and issued a proper documentary (apparently, second singer Jason Gleason was not asked to participate in the release at all. DRAMA!). There aren't even any music videos on the disc, which sucks because it would've been cool to see the rare clip for "Wearing Thin," which featured a girl driving aimlessly around Seattle. All we're left with is a video of the live set they perform on the CD, crappy interviews and "behind the scenes clips" which is really a montage of footage from random tours and preexisting DVDs of the Cornerstone and Furnace festivals.

As for the music portion itself, surprisingly Jon Bunch sounds more comfortable singing Chris Carrabba's and Gleason's songs more than his own. But live records are seldom good and this falls into the abyss of unlistenable live albums. The acoustic song choices are something to be desired and the songs from their debut split EP with Recess Theory aren't all that rare, and many of those songs show up on "The Moon is Down" anyway.

The only real reason to give this a chance is the rare cover of Bjork's "Pagan Poetry" which was originally recorded for a Bjork tribute that will probably never come out. The cover is pretty good (as far as Bjork covers go) since Gleason sings on the track and he seemed to be the only singer of the three that was able to control his voice well [1].

This really does seems like another cash in on Further Seems Forever, thing is, the band has been dead for over a year now and kids have already moved on to worshiping other bands. Oh well, better late than never I suppose.

[1] Dude should really try out for "American Idol." He'd sing circles around that Blake Lewis sucker.