Piebald - All Ears, All Eyes, All the Time

Leaving their Massachusetts hometown proved not so fruitful for Piebald. Shortly after relocating to the promised land of California, the band retreated back to familiar Boston to work on the best album of their career. All Ears, All Eyes, All the Time is a perfect follow up to 2002's We Are the Only Friends We Have, and should bring a lot of recognition to their new home on Side One Dummy Records. Once called "the bastard child of the Pixies and Weezer," Piebald has come into their own a little more with each album, and though the guitar work is still a bit Pixies-ish on occasion, and there are the Beatles-esqe moments as well, Piebald should only be thought of as being themselves. Comparing this album to any previous work makes their maturation obvious; songs are catchier, sunnier, and in the past, as much as I adore them, the band had some songs that were flat out fucking annoying. Thankfully there's none of that this time around. Despite surgery on his vocal cords since the last album, Travis Shettel still can't sing for shit, but he makes up for that with improvements on all other angles--he's writing better lyrics, stronger songs and his guitar work has grown too. "Present Tense", "The Six Eighter" and "The Jealous Guy Blues" are my favorites, but even the worst songs are still enjoyable. While they're not cute enough to "break big," Piebald's charm and wit haven't let them down yet and probably never will. [www.piebald.com]