In the last season of Alias, the writers decided to bring in what I termed new-Vaughn and new-Sydney, two younger characters who'd take the action of the "dead" Vaughn and the pregnant Sydney. I think I was one of the few people who actually liked the two, but new-Vaughn was just the coolest. Played by the ever-cool Balthazar Getty, he would have been unbelievably cool had the writers given him anything to do.
A few months later, I was watching Survivor when I heard a song on a Pontiac commercial that just blew me away. It had a blithe, laid-back dance sound that I thought my sister, my dad and I thought was excellent. After some web searching, we found that the band was Ringside, and one of the two guys in it was Balthazar Getty. Now we were fascinated. My sister bought the CD a few weeks later, and I've been hooked ever since.
I can't say Ringside plays the cleanest music, but they do play some of the coolest. They're a light-rock band based on keyboard and drums with an interesting dance twist. But then other times, they switch to a completely different mode and play songs with emotional clout.
Struggle, the song I first heard of theirs, is a fabulous song but not necessarily the best example of their work. To me, Trixie or Dreamboat 730 would be the best (although both have objectionable content). I'd actually heard Dreamboat 730 before and simply not recognized it - it's cryptic, but extraordinarily catchy. I'll leave you to interpret it yourself: "Thank you for the life you gave me/Cut me with your knife and save me/Up for much better waves/All good children come and play . . . Sinners, stay at home/Think about the evil done/In bed so early/Dreamboat 730."
Trixie, on the other hand, is fairly clear in its meaning. In it, the singer bemoans the fact that he wants a woman that he knows he can't have. He knows she's simply playing him, but he can't help himself. "I feel I know you/But you're someone else . . . Oh you're so cruel/To do what you do to me/Your kind of woman no man should need/You infect me." That's intense. And the way he practically moans the last part (You infect me) is agonizing, in all the best ways.
Realistically, what sets Ringside apart is the songwriting. I like the guy's voice - he's gravelly and unpolished, and manages to switch between Trixie's burning mood and Struggle's energetic attitude - but there are other bands with singers much like him. The instruments aren't killer, and a lot of the instruments you'll hear are effects-ridden. But Scott Thomas, "the other guy," has a way with words that fits his style perfectly. Check them out, definitely. Their sound is engaging.
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