The Cost of Living

Tell Tale Heart, from St. Louis, MO, is a trio boasting the same guitar/bass/drums instrumentation as U2, although they combine the talents of Bono and the Edge in singer/songwriter/guitarist Joel Dodson. The bands have more than instrumentation in common. Dodson writes anthemic-sounding songs with sustaining guitar parts, and he and bass player Alex Hammond and drummer Andrew Carter play them as fervently as Dodson sings. The big difference between the two groups is their lyrical focus. Bono wants to save the world and find personal salvation doing so. Dodson desperately wants to avoid having his girlfriend leave him. He's willing to try anything, it seems. In "Polka Dots," the lead-off song, he even praises her taste in apparel, noting "You were always my favorite pattern." The band's name may refer to Edgar Allan Poe's macabre short story, but Tell Tale Heart seems to mean something far more innocent with the phrase. Dodson is wearing his heart on his sleeve, musically speaking, telling tales about it as his band treats his sentiments with world-saving, religious importance.