Ryan Dubois/The Dubois': Buy

Ryan's first full-length studio album "God Damn Dubois" is a work of textual soundscapes, and lyrical prowess. It is an album in every sense of the word. It is a work to be listened to in full,(though most songs stand tall on their own). Using instruments ranging from the echo drum, to the sitar, to the slide whistle, you are certain to unearth a vast melting pot of sounds, often assisting the acoustic rhythms and vocal leads. The first track is an introduction to the journey,as the proverbial welcome-mat telling the listener to buckle up for the ride. The second track titled "sweird" is a hilarious up-tempo song about lingual slips, with psychotic repercussions; "Hey, you're sweird / I went to call you psycho but then it turned into weird / And I can tell by the look in your eyes / you're not the type of person one should call 'psycho'/ so it turned into 'weird'." Dubois has a lyrical ability to convey excellent images with minimal use of words. He is an effective lyricist in that his voice has the ability to display many emotions with simplicity. Within this album, you will find a great depth of musical layers, tactfully structured, and artistically voiced. "God Damned Dubois", is the 'Enter' sign into the mind of one, whose mind is musically inclined.

- Justin Carloni

After driving down what seemed liked miles of dirt road, saying hello to handfuls of friendly faces, playing some Frisbee or Wiffleball, and gorging on some great pot luck food, you find yourself standing at the top off a grass knoll in a field surrounded by giant pine trees. The sun has gone down and millions of stars shine up above. But the real stars have just taken the impressive homemade stage out here in the woods of Vermont. The Dubois, complete with a colorfully tiled toilet bowl mascot, are the act you’ve been waiting to see. And you are not disappointed.

While the ambiance of the moment is hard to recreate, the recording quality of this CD is quite amazing. And the music is quintessential Dubois. You haven’t heard of the Dubois? Let me continue to paint my picture for you then. Imagine stage right a woman (Billie Dubois) playing a tiny keyboard and a variety of children’s toys and sound effects, occasionally screaming into the microphone. On the other side of the stage a guy with a guitar (Ryan Dubois) stomps wildly on a bunch of pedals creating some crazy sounds of his own. Behind them “Luther Dubois” on bass and “Phils Dubois” on the drums calmly holds things down, occasionally jumping in on the spasms.

The songs are generally fairly short but definitely to the point. Topically, they hit the common areas like love: “I fucking hate you”, relationships: “I’m always kissing your ass”, and of course bowel movements: “I took a hundred shits today”. While the Dubois truly are a band that defies categorization, they definitely create an ambiance. With the variety of toys that Billie plays combined with the sometimes sublime and often-absurd lyrics, the songs create an almost trance like feel that is broken only by the occasional guffaw, gasp, or hysterical belly laughing. One of the highlights on this CD that epitomizes the Dubois wonderful randomness is a song about an episode of the show Knight Rider, wonderfully narrated by Ryan Dubois. Personally, one of my all-time favorite Dubois songs is “Fuckin’ with Aliens” and this live version is particularly good.

Make no mistake, The Dubois are real serious musicians. They just don’t take music or life too seriously, which is what makes them so refreshing. Their “over-the-top-ness” is so liberating and fun that you can’t help but fall in love with this band. I would recommend this CD and The Dubois live shows to anyone who appreciates something different and has a healthy sense of humor.