In the
summer of 2011, I went to see The Black Keys play at Artpark. It was, as you
can probably imagine, an amazing show. But let me back up for a minute. The reason
I ended up going to the show in the first place was because I wanted to see
Cage the Elephant, who was opening for them. At that point in my life, if you
can believe it, I was a bigger fan of Cage the Elephant than The Black Keys.
You may be able to guess what happened next, but I’ll tell you anyway: I was
totally underwhelmed by Cage the Elephant and completely blown away with the
sound and power The Black Keys generated with (pretty much) only two people. I
was left wondering if I had seen Cage the Elephant at the height of their
career. Was opening for The Black Keys in Lewiston, New York going to be one of
their most memorable shows? I doubt it, but the fact that I'm even considering it is worth noting.
I’m thinking about all of this
because I just listened to the self-titled debut LP by FIDLAR, a band that shares some similarities with Cage the Elephant. It’s definitely
an impressive album and I will certainly keep listening to it. The unpolished, tinny-sounding,
screaming-mad-lyrical attack of “Cheap Beer” hits you like a punch in the face
right off the bat. Zac Carper, FIDLAR’s lead singer, is not a gentleman I would
ever charge with the task of lulling a baby to sleep. These guys were put on
earth to make noise. But my concern is that the ceiling is not very high for
punk or punk-revival bands right now; my worry is that they are making noise
that people no longer want to listen to.
If this sounds like a very “corporate”
stance on things, well, I guess maybe it is. But let me explain myself. It
seems like most music-consuming individuals right now are looking for either a
genre-bending sound or a new sound entirely. An example of this is The Lumineers,
Imagine Dragons, and fun. currently occupying the 1st, 3rd, and
4th spots on the Billboard Rock charts. I’m not going to turn this
into an argument about the merits of each band, but I can say for certain that
those are not Rock bands. Or are
they? What exactly defines Rock right now? I feel like whoever makes those
kinds of decisions had a discussion that I was not privy to, and the result is
that bands like The Lumineers, who ten years ago would have existed in some state
of folk-rock obscurity, are now our generations “rock stars.”
This is presumably really
unfortunate for bands like FIDLAR. Although Carper declares, on the second
track “Stoked and Broke,” that “I just wanna get really high/smoke weed until I
die/I don’t ever wanna get a job,” I assume that most of that is hyperbole and
he’d actually really like to get a job. Or at least sell enough records to do
what he wants to do and nothing else. Again, I liked this album, but I don’t see
it starting the kinds of revolutions this music would’ve if, say, it was
released thirty-five years ago. Thirty-five years ago, if a kid was caught
listening to Carper belting out, “Why did you go betray me/You’re such a whore/I
stay at home drinking/you’re such a whore,” as he does on the 5th
track “Whore,” the mom, dad, local priest and family cat would’ve gathered in
the living room to explain just how awful the devil is. Nowadays, if a parent
caught their kid listening to FIDLAR, they’ll just shrug it off, go back into
the den and pop in their Lumineers CD.
Highlights of the album for me were the above-mentioned “Cheap Beer” and “Whore,” and I loved the reverberating guitar and general anger of the final song “Cocaine,” but my favorite song on FIDLAR is “Gimmie Something.” Just take a typical Beach Boys song, add some lyrical distortion and more amplification and you’ll come away with “Gimmie Something."
Highlights of the album for me were the above-mentioned “Cheap Beer” and “Whore,” and I loved the reverberating guitar and general anger of the final song “Cocaine,” but my favorite song on FIDLAR is “Gimmie Something.” Just take a typical Beach Boys song, add some lyrical distortion and more amplification and you’ll come away with “Gimmie Something."
Punk music used to have an edge, but now it seems like more of a novelty than
anything else. After hearing Carper belt out in the opening track, “I drink
cheap beer/so what/fuck you,” what else can you think? The question then
becomes: Are they aware of this? And I’d say yes, they are. FIDLAR is a 14-track album full of short
songs with a West coast beach-punk vibe and they did a hell of a job picking a
sound and sticking to it. I can only imagine the party that occurred on the day
this album came out and all I can really say is good for them.
Grade: B
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