Dayton's damsels: Vanity Theft

 
Coming from Dayton, Ohio, a city that most people wouldn't recognize on a map unless they were familiar southwestern Ohio; many either forget or don't know that this city does have quite an important musical history. Oh, and the Wright Brothers built the first airplane here. Among the numerous bands this city has produced are The Ohio Players, Guided By Voices, Swearing At Motorists, Brainiac, The Breeders, and while he didn't actually bring much to the local music scene, Lou Barlow was born here too. In addition to these bands, that are household names in some circles, there are a plethora of equally talented, if not quite as well known, bands that call this city home.

One of those bands, is Vanity Theft. The ladies of this band are original, talented, and out on a great live show. They manage this despite the fact most of the band aren't old enough to drink in the bars they play shows in. This is normally not a great sign for a band. Young bands, have a tendency to wear their influences on their sleeves. Often times to the point of inducing thoughts of parody or even of them being a tribute band of some kind. This rarelt speaks to the overall talents, but rather the fact that the songwriters in the band are still trying to find their voice, and the musicians in the band are still learning how to make that voice speak.

In the case of Vanity Theft, the band's song and voice is fully realized. The strange thing, is that the bands influences: Radiohead, Okkervil River, and Of Montreal aren't overly noticable in their sound. They sound more like Sleater Kinney ... but only if they were jamming with Devo or an early incarnation of The Metric.

Their album, "Post Script: Pace Yourself", features songs that are mature without being cynical, well written without sounding overly processed, and intelligent while still being fun to listen to. The best songs on the album, are "In Retrospect", "Teeth and Bone", and the album's closing track "Edit, Edit, Edit". To only pick two or three songs off of this album, isn't fair though, it is a solid album from front to back. And one that can be listened to literally constantly for a week or so.

For a band this young, to have this strong of a sense of melody but also understanding how to write rock songs that don't shy away from experimentation is a rarity. Hell, there are bands that been together for over a decade that are yet to put out an album that is this solid from front to back. You can check them out on their MySpace, and if you like what you hear, hop over to their CDBaby site and pick a copy up. Music this fun and honest doesn't come around very often, regardless of the band's status.

The band put together a video for their track "Edit, Edit, Edit" that not only shows off the bands musical prowess, but also that they are good natured people who don't take themselves too seriously. To be perfectly honest, this band is reminiscent of the alternative music scene when it was just starting to blossom into the forefront of the musical mainstream. These ladies are an amazing band and if all is fair, they will be extremely succesful. But, they don't give a damn about what any musical commentator has to say about them. And that, is the beauty of it all.