The Forecast - Late Night Conversations

The Forecast
Late Night Conversations
Victory Records
Grade: A-/A

Who the hell are the Forecast? Where did they come from? And why are they so fucking good? These are some of the questions I immediately began asking myself as the opening song “Seating Subject to Availability” progressed and you are greeted with Victory Records’ best release in a long time. More importantly, you are greeted with one of the best releases of the year and one of the best indie rock records of the decade.

The Forecast are from Peoria, Illinois and the songs (and album art) clearly reflect a sense of Midwestern plainness, hope, dreams and reality. Mirroring indie rock bands like the Anniversary, Park Ave, Helicopter Helicopter and Braid, the Forecast are also instilled with margins of country twang reflecting a rock link with John Cougar Mellencamp. At times, the Forecast can also bring a harder edge and emotion to their songs – such emotion I haven’t felt since Hot Water Music’s Forever and Counting. This melding of influences creates a sound that was prevalent in the late 90s, but has dissipated since then towards a move to emo-everything. I’m not going to shit you, I’m a total sucker for male-female vocal tradeoffs particularly within an indie rock context. And the Forecast create nearly the perfect combination of this vocal formula. This is thanks to guitarist Dustin Addis usually taking the vocal lead, but immediately followed and matched by the brilliant bassist Shannon Burns. Combine this with a steady beat from Tony Peck and dynamic guitars from Matt Webb, and you wind up with something special – Late Night Conversations.

I feel totally asleep at the wheel for not being informed of the Forecast before this release on Victory. Maybe if I was in the Midwest I could have caught on quicker, but oh well. They have been kicking around since 2001 and have put out two EPs and a split with 1090 Club. Those EPs and this debut full-length was produced and recorded by Saddle Creek mastermind AJ Mogis at his Lincoln, NE Presto! Studios. I realized that I know only know Mogis production jobs from Saddle Creek releases and never really thought about how he would naturally produce other records. That Mogis was willing to stay recording the Forecast over their history should tell you something about the talent of this fearsome foursome.

As mentioned above, the ten-song Late Night Conversations kicks off on the blistering “Seating Subject to Availability.” With initial building and quick shifting guitars you have no idea what the Forecast’s sound is until it breaks, Addis’ belts the first line with clicking drum rims and one simple downstroking guitar. While it progresses and Burns’ vocals join in, you start to get excited and when the chorus strikes you are like ‘fucking awesome!’ And there you have the essence of the Forecast’s songwriting structure and philosophy – and for folks like me it is nearly perfect. “These Lights” slows momentum down and twangs things up on the verse, before Burns’ leads a strong chorus. After the further country and average “Helping Hands,” the band is back hard on “Fade In Fade Out.” “Fade In Fade Out” is more straight up punk and is again enhanced by Burns’ taking over the verse duties midway through – and also breaks down for gang vocals that lead to a dazzling come back. The song ends in such a way that could only be done by an indie rock band not concerned about creating ‘hits.’ The instruments reduce intensity and Addis calmly leads the close of the song – a point where many bands would feel compelled to go back for another run through the chorus. “Whiskey’s Dead You’re Next” is constructed in classic indie rock fashion with busy guitars underneath slower vocals by Burns’ and Addis bolsters the chorus. The title track finds the Forecast at the uptempo rock with an ear catching rhythmic solo and one of the more memorable lines of ‘We’ll fight the good fight, the good fight.’ Along with “Seating Subject to Availability” and “Fade In Fade Out,” the title track is among the record’s top numbers. After the average “APR,” the Forecast decide to massively extend the next two numbers “Exorcise Demons” and “Sleep Tight Tonight” to six-plus-minutes. “Exorcise Demons” is abslow number that breaks into a harder rock phase about three minutes in before drawing back. “Sleep Tight Tonight” has a bit of Chunk in it as it pulsates with distorted guitars and Addis and Burns’ vocals for half the time. The biggest misstep on Late Night Conversations is the closing number “Losing Signal,” where Addis belts out to an acoustic guitar with a bit of background noise.

Save for a couple of drops at the end, Late Night Conversations is a good as it gets. With this record and support from Victory, the Forecast should do some serious damage this summer and beyond. If people don’t welcome the Forecast into their arms, then they should be arrested.