Arapahoe Herald

The Dangerous Summer: Little-known band releases new album

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 By Dakota Moran

The members of the band The Dangerous Summer always had a dream to play music. As lead singer A.J. Perdomo says in their song, “The Permanent Rain,” “But I was just a kid. One with all these dreams of growing up and playing music on the road.” It was all just a dream until 2006 when Perdomo, Cody Payne, guitar, Bryan Van Czap, guitar and Tyler Minsberg, drums, came together and formed The Dangerous Summer. Only a year later, the band first released their first album “There is No Such Thing as Science.” The album was then picked up by Hopeless Records and re-released as “If You Could Only Keep Me Alive.” The new album featured some new songs that were not on the original release. The band took a few years off but successfully followed up with the May 2009 release of their album “Reach for the Sun.” The album has been their most successful so far. The album reached #42 on Billboard Heatseekers Chart. Their instrumental music is stunning, but vocals are clearly their weak spot. The singing is flat and bland and doesn’t show any vocal talent. The tunes have a kind of “pick-me-up” melody, but the lyrics aren’t exactly all about happiness. In some of their songs they seem to be grieving over losing someone important in their life. However, the lyrics themselves are very well together. The song “Where I Want to Be” is one of my favorites. The vocals are a bit stronger in this song and aren’t as flat as the rest of the album. Also, the lyrics take a different approach. The song is about a guy who took a wrong turn in his life and lost a girl he really cares for and he wants to change and fix it. It’s easy to get lost in the melodies and lost in the words. They’re the kind of songs you can’t get out of your head for days. The band does have a lot of talent. They have a perfect formula for success if they would just work on their vocals. I would definitely recommend this album. Despite their weaknesses, the songs do grow on you.