bigfatmusicblog

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of Montreal at Cats Cradle Carborro NC

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been an emo/folk punk week oops

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The Blah Keys: Have the Black Keys ever released anything interesting?

I won’t lie, The Black Keys were a big part of my life during my early teen years. I was borderline obsessed after hearing Brothers for the first time, finding that album as well as Catch & Release at my local library. Which - they don’t have CD’s and DVD’s at any libraries near me and that’s a damn shame. I miss the nostalgic feeling of obtaining literally hundreds of dollars in library late fees after losing every piece of media I ever got from there, ah the good ole days! I was locked in there for a second and when the album roll-out for their true breakthrough record El Camino started I made it my whole personality. El Camino’s became my dream car, at least the El Camino on the front of the album which isn’t really an El Camino and I wish I had known better at the time. I even bought a graphic tee just because it had El Caminos (the real version) on the front and said El Camino. Telling all my friends that “this is basically Black Keys merch” (I think this is also around the time I sharpied “Oi punk isn’t dead” on the back of a white shirt, god I was so cool back then) and them feigning interest and hitting me with a “oh, sure, awesome dude.” My love for them fell off a little due to both me, alternative radios, and car commercials severely overplaying every single song of theirs, but still when I saw Turn Blue, after it came out, at a Target (indie record store alert!!!)  I said to myself “hey, new Black Keys, why the fuck not?” Proving ultimate fan-ship, the ability to set aside past differences and still purchase an album of theirs on a whim.

This all changed one day when I got a notification for an article about some sort of beef that had started between their drummer, the loveable douche, Patrick Carney and some other alternative artist of the same era whose name I can’t remember for the life of me. The thing that stuck with me the most from this article was a phrasing that the other artist used to refer to them, calling them The Blah Keys. I know a lot of folks in this camp’s main critique is that they are a band who claims to be Blues Rock and they are just… not? I guess, I don’t know a ton about blues rock but I’m willing to learn! But I think because I respected the opinion of this second artist I can’t fucking remember the name of, it made me think back on the overplayed nature of their previous release. Was I tired of these songs because they’re overplayed? Or are they so boring or blah that relistenability is inherently a dredge, trudging through the fuzzy slush just to make it to the end. 

Anyways I don’t think I ever listened to another Black Keys album again. However, due to the nature of the world right now, nostalgia is more powerful than ever. It has a stronghold on me! I have to force myself to listen to new music or else I would just listen to the same emo playlist I made when I was 18. Because of the aforementioned nostalgia thing, I’ve been doing a lot of deep dives on my favorite artists growing up and so naturally eventually I would make my way to the Black Keys. And, what’s even more exciting, they’ve released four new albums since I cut off contact with them! Sounds like a home run! Until I hear this little voice in my head, from some unknown musician that I’m too lazy to try and figure out the name of, whispering The Blah Keys, the Blaaaaaah Keys, like a fucking Scooby-Doo ghost. 

In order to not be embarrassed by my choice of artist to deep dive, I thought what a better time to test this Blah Keys theory and answer the question - Have the Black Keys ever released anything interesting?

Since they have twelve albums I will be separating this article into three parts - in a kind of an insane order to listen to a bands music but whatever. It is nice of them to have twelve albums by the time I'm writing this, ahhh a beautiful 4-4-4, we love natural aesthetics.

First off: The new stuff. Diving into the four new albums they’ve released Post-Hiatus that I know absolutely nothing about. Starting from their most recent release I will work my way down their catalogue till I get to “Let’s Rock” (eyeroll).

In the second part I’m going back to the basics starting from The Big Come Up to Magic Potion. I am a bit more familiar with this side of them though I think mostly through rappers I know using their songs as samples to beats.

Lastly I will delve into the part of their discography I, and probably a lot of you, am most familiar with - the Danger Mouse years. Hitting up this one last not only because I am so familiar with it but also I believe this section has the greatest likelihood of having something interesting in it. So who knows? It might be the buzzer beater the Black Keys need to beat the Blah Keys allegations.

Note: I’m not spending any time on any of the EP’s or anything they’ve released, if you are a diehard and after all of this think I am truly missing out on something please let me know!

So yeah, whether you love or hate this band I hope you like what I have to say and I would love to hear from all of y’all your opinions on this band. See ya soon :)

[bigfatmusicblog]

GO BIRDS GO JUST FRIENDS

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WTF is Jangle Pop?

If you’ve read any of my little write-ups you know I have a longstanding love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with subgenres. I understand the need to more specifically classify music, especially when genres like indie rock are so vague, still it doesn’t make it any less arbitrary than gender. As a kid/teen I was obsessed with subgenres and while they’re a lot more specific nowadays, god could I tell you the difference between Garage Punk and Slacker Punk, much to the chagrin of anyone who happened to be in earshot. Because of this predilection, wired into my brain from years of surfing the tags on Bandcamp, whenever I catch wind of a subgenre new to me I have to dive deeper into it. An attempt to understand what makes that subgenre different from other closely related ones, as I said before, is an arbitrary one - after all literally none of this matters in the grand scheme of things, but also just like… let people enjoy things asshole.

I first heard about Jangle Pop earlier this year looking at the RYM reviews of Ducks Ltd. fantastic sophomore record Harm’s Way. Mistakenly I originally thought of it as an indie rock record, one that I was fairly excited about because of its guitar based nature and lack of unnecessary electronic aspects so many in the indie rock umbrella have turned to recently. But oh how simple I can be…

This moment reminds me of a time I was on a trip with just my brother and my dad - my dad was in the shower listening to a Creed radio station he had made on Pandora. Upon getting out of the shower he asked us “what genre would you consider Creed to be?” “Uhh, Grunge I guess?” we replied. It took a second but finally he said, “Well, if this is what that is, I guess I like grunge then.” If Harm’s Way by Ducks Ltd. is a jangle pop album, well fuck I guess I like jangle pop. 

One of the biggest things I noticed in those RYM reviews were a lot of claims about this album being “no nonsense, old school jangle pop” or “some of the best jangle pop [they’ve] heard in years.” This lead me to the assumption that, despite no subgenre being a monolith, I could use this album as a better way to understand this new (to me) idea of what jangle pop truly is and what its parts are. 

Instrumentation-wise this album utilizes single notes on clean guitars as opposed to playing full chords. That doesn’t mean the lead guitar is just shredding the whole time, they’re simply playing rhythm guitar with single notes, giving them the ability to add little flourishes whenever they can. The tone of the guitar is clean, only going into distortion at the beginning of On Our Way to the Rave. This is coupled with a heavily present bass sound, working just about the same as the guitar, except being a bit more lead-heavy. Usually the two don’t take the lead at the same time, sharing the spotlight by playing simple rhythms behind more impressive parts on the bass/guitar. I think this trade-off is what gives the genre the first part of its name, the jangle part. Less math-rock than the closely related (name-wise) genre of twinkle-emo, it may sound insane but you can tell the difference between twinkle and jangle. I don’t know how to further explain this point but trust me, if you listen to the two side by side, you will be able to tell.

The drums play a big role in this as well, as with most genres it’s the driving force behind everything. A lot of times it takes that job seriously, with no better way to describe the sound than driving. There aren’t any waltzes in here, with no slowing down really until the very end, it sounds exhaustive for the person on the skins. I think without this steady drum beat the jangle of the stringed instruments would be less noticeable, truly taking on a supporting role. Every so often it’s sprinkled with little fills, borrowing sounds and influences from bands like The Cure and R.E.M, who some consider to be earlier examples of jangle. 

So now that I musically know the themes of this genre, being given, from my research, the quintessential jangle album of the year. I start to think tangentially, what has influenced this, where have I heard these sounds before, who started Jangle Pop???? I’m answering that question myself, with no real outside research because who really cares, and in my opinion the current state of Jangle Pop started in 2008 when Vampire Weekend recreated the genre with their self titled album, Vampire Weekend. 

While this album is a bit more heavily produced, and there are potentially a lot more jangle themes in their sophomore follow-up Contra, I think the twee aesthetics and juvenile lyrics of college life, plus the heavily present bass and less so present lead guitar, sets up the future of this genre perfectly. Songs like Oxford Comma and Campus feature the guitar tones and smarter "educated person" lyrics that continue to make up the genre today. Percussion-wise it is different, VW has always been more syncopated or twinkly with their drums, but in future songs like Cousins and Worship You it’s easier to see the relation. On that previous topic I do feel like their perfect syncopation plays a big part musically, inspiring the future of the subgenre. While there is a good trade-off of bass and guitar on Harm’s Way, the moments where the two come together with the drums has real power behind it.  

All of this leads up to the previous Friday, October 18th, with the release of Boyscott’s first record in almost a decade, Spellbound. What’s special about this album is that it’s the first new album I’ve heard that’s made me go “oh… that’s jangle pop, I understand what jangle pop is.” It plays on the driving aspects of the drums found in Harm’s Way while also incorporating ideas that are very clearly influenced by early Vampire Weekend. Songs like Moosehead that uses the ever popular organ sound found in A-Punk and even at the beginning of Ducks Ltd.’s rocker of a track Train Full of Gasoline. 

To be honest this album seems to mainly be Vampire Weekend influenced, which makes sense, afterall Ducks Ltd. is moreso their peers as opposed to one of the most influential indie bands of the late 00’s early 10’s. Ducks is clearly more influenced by real classic jangle pop bands whereas Boyscott, at least on this album, helps support my hypothesis that Vampire Weekend recreated the genre, we love to see it. The real cross-section between Harm’s Way and Spellbound is in their vocal performance. Not to assume influences, like I have been this entire article, but you can definitely hear some Black Francis of the Pixies or, the more modern, Christian Zucconi of Grouplove influence behind both of their understated, raspy yet calming voices. 

Beyond that this album really just feels like a DIY produced Vampire Weekend album. Arthur Kill to Lima is a fantastic run of songs that promote this clear influence on the release. Boyscott is still able to make it their own, mind you, and they do focus more on the less chord influenced side of jangle pop that Vampire Weekend has never really tapped into. They also use their surfer rock influence to make the songs almost more relatable, as opposed to the crisp clean impossible to replicate general aesthetics of Vampire Weekend’s early work. This gives them a little more grime, a little more edge, a little more ripped jeans than a pair of pressed tan slacks. Being able to go from the lovely syncopation to these robust warm choruses puts a true sense of comfort behind this release, perfect for the upcoming cold air. 

Overall: Jangle Pop, and I’m so glad I don’t have to type out that phrase again for such a long time, is a genre best taken in musically. If you aren’t paying attention a lot of it can sound the same, a general warm blanket of noise, but once you start looking at the parts individually is when the magic shines through. Clever guitars, present lead bass, breakneck drum fills that drive the genre, all of these work in sync helping create the feeling of jingle jangle - under the guise of pop music - that evokes the name of the genre.

Album Grades: 

Harm’s Way by Ducks, Ltd. - A

Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend - B+

Spellbound by Boyscott - B+

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Current Joys - East My Love ALBUM REVIEW

The leaves are changing, the hot cocoa is starting to be made, sweaters are coming out of their hiding smelling like mothballs, hurricanes are ravaging the southeastern United States, and I just changed my bong water which means one thing - IT’S FALL BABY!! And what genre of music goes better with the fall season than folk music? The acoustic guitars, slow soft songs with heart wrenching lyrics that you listen to despite already feeling super fucking sad, plus guys in flannels?? I literally cannot think of anything more fall. One album that was released at, seemingly, the perfect time for me to open the windows and take in the newly cool autumn air, as if they planned it that way, is the new Current Joys album - East My Love.

I won’t say I’ve followed Current Joys for this long but I have been listening to them since 2018, specifically their album A Different Age. I pull this album out yearly like Halloween decorations, trying to feel something in a season where I already feel too much, let’s say I use it for special reasons. A lot of their other releases have fallen under the radar for me except for their previous release LOVE+POP with features from bigger named artists like Lil Yachty, a fun dive into a different sort of genre overall, but didn’t resonate with me personally. 

East My Love, similar to LOVE+POP, is another exploration into a different genre for the multi-instrumentalist Nick Rattigan, the driving force behind Current Joys. As I mentioned before in my Alien Nosejob write up, there is a lot of fun to be had from making music solo especially as a multi-instrumentalist where you can delve into whatever genre of music you want to make - and this time Current Joys sheds the indie droning of A Different Age, as well as the pop sensibilities of the aptly named LOVE+POP, for one that’s dripping with influences from the Alt-Country phase of the 90s to the pop-folk craze that owned the radios in the early 2010s. East My Love is thick with folk cliches, including songs titled “Oh, Sister” and “Lullaby for the Lost” - just based on the album art alone you know what you’re getting yourself into when you click play. 

And if the song titles and album art weren’t convincing enough to you that this is a folk album, what greets you as the first song is the beautiful Echoes of the Past. The simple instrumentation, just guitar and violin/fiddle (The difference being a tone thing or a speed thing I don’t know) is all they need to intro an album like this. It lulls you into thinking it’s just a simple solo-artist folk album before it goes into the full band sound of California Rain. It feels almost out of a Matchbox 20 album from the beginning, then at the chorus it gets loud only in the way that non-traditional folk artists know how to. After a repetition of the verse and chorus there is a breakdown featuring the fiddle, with some guitar in the background too almost making a brass effect to it. Seriously, it’s difficult to tell if there are trumpets in this or not, as it’ll make you think one thing before showing you something different. To be included with this song is Days of Heaven, sort of an interlude after California Rain - invoking the feeling of being at church on a Sunday morning.

Next is Never Seen A Rose, another example of the 90s influence on this album - as Nick’s voice takes on a higher raspier pitch, androgynous like how Wheatus sounds on Teenage Dirtbag. This utilizes dual vocals, as well as Nick’s general vocal range and ability, creating a feeling that he is singing a duet with himself. Especially as the big chorus comes in, using both their falsetto and head voice to create a robust sound. Then after that large sound comes the soft slow drawl of a fiddle/violin (fiddlin?) reminding me of informational videos at museums, before going back into that 90s sound. The song fizzles out and sizzles right into the next track Lullaby for the Lost - another classic folk song with some fun production choices, especially the back and forth with the vocals and violiddle (I really should’ve done more research) in the second and third chorus. It’s sort of an energy killer, but good if you’re just chilling out, going for a nice long drive.

We pick up the pace a little bit with Oh, Sister another song that plays into folk cliches to help familiarize the audience immediately to what’s going on. It’s a very relatable track for anyone else who has family members that don’t necessarily agree with their lifestyle. This is a plea to his sister to treat him the same, but to also respect who he is as a person. Ending the song with the haunting lines “Time is an ocean, but it ends at the shore, you may not see me here tomorrow.” Then we have the unfortunately titled They Shoot Horses, this song has a classic country ride to it, you could almost hear Toby Keith crooning those lyrics, although if they were truly written by him they’d probably be a little more insincere. It uses the imagery of having to euthanize a horse after they are injured in what is the rider's fault. They didn’t do anything and yet this innocent creature must suffer for your mistake. These deep lyrics with a beautiful chorus sandwich two huge swelling instrumental breakdowns before slowly fizzling out.

SPEAKING OF SLOWLY, next is Slowly Likely the Wind. Another simple acoustic song, they leave the frills behind in this one, even the violiddlin isn’t even present as acoustic guitar and bass ring out. Just the walk up to the chorus gets me so pumped to hear what’s gonna happen next, with a beautiful hook to tie it all together. This I think is where a lot of their 70’s folk rock influence comes out, conjuring up The Band and the Eagles especially in the simple but impactful chorus. Lullaby to Slowly is definitely longest part of the album with some of these songs kind of falling into almost boring territory, though bringing you back in with a solid riff or breakdown. This album is for a long car ride, okay? You gotta be in it for the long haul.

But we pick things up a little bit with Tormenta, finally using electric guitar as the main rhythm force, something we have yet to hear on this album. You can definitely feel a lot of Bright Eyes inspiration in a lot of this album but it’s truly on display with Tormenta. There are great harmonies when there needs to be in this song, using it to amplify the uniqueness of Nick’s voice as it’s against this angelic backdrop. 

Now I will say I am starting to get a little tired of the song structure all of these songs take, verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus/verse outro, I want something fast, that I don’t have to think too hard about, OH WHEN WILL YOU COME?

Bitch I’m right here! says Sister Christian the next song on the album. One of my absolute favorites for sure right here, this song fucking rocks. So very alt-country, I love it when any song can use a riff as a hook/recurring theme. They do meander a bit, pushing the song to be a little bit longer when it really could’ve been a tight 1m50s, GET ME IN THE EDITING ROOM! But really I love this song, definitely a huge stand out track, I wish it were earlier in the album just so I could’ve heard it sooner. 

The second to last track is the title track, East My Love, and boyhowdy what a title track it is. The longest song on the album it starts off with Nick going into their falsetto rasp during the first verse into the chorus. Then the second verse comes along and I’m just gonna type it out not say anything else about it, just, it’s good - AND I WILL BURY ALL YOUR TEARS/CAUSE THERE’S ALWAYS USE IN CRYIN/AND I WILL CONSUME ALL YOUR FEARS/SO YOU’LL NEVER HAVE TO HIDE THEM/WHAT’S IT LIKE TO DISAPPEAR/ FROM EVERYTHING YOU ONCE RELIED ON/SO WHEN YOU’RE STUCK OUT IN THE EAST/THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A LIGHT ON. Man, I love that. After that we hit up the chorus one more time then end with another instrumental outro. Lastly is a Simon & Garfunkle cover, Feelin Groovy, I kind of wish they used this as a secret track at the end of East My Love just to be a little fun. It almost seems with how the previous song ends, maybe that was the intention? I don’t know if there are rights issues since it’s a cover or something. But it’s a fun way to end a pretty sad album, leaves ya with a good taste in your mouth.

Overall: This is a great driving album. As someone who spends a lot of time on the road, you have no idea how much that means to me. With catchy hooks that aren’t too simple or too complicated, songs that make you think and relate to. It’s these types of albums that feel so good to listen to at full volume, windows down in your car. It’s okay if you’re a little cold, grab that sweatshirt from the back of your car and let yourself be made warm by the sweet sounds of acoustic guitar and viofilinddle.

Grade: A-

Favorite Songs: Never Seen a Rose, Sister Christian, They Shoot Horses

[bigfatmusicblog]

hey! hi! howdy!

my name is Mash and this is my music blog.

been getting a lot into music journalism lately so I decided to give it a shot - especially when I saw a lot of albums I liked not getting any sort of coverage. I write about music that speaks to me, music that I can relate to, and music that makes me go 'awwwww yeah'

Things to expect from this blog:

Weekly album reviews - every Friday I go through albums released on that day to see if anything sparks any inspiration. Usually a review will be up by Tuesday or Thursday.

Specialty articles - I already have an ongoing "The State of Punk" series where I go over punk rock roots - comparing new bands and new albums to the classic artists within the genre. I have a couple of other series planned, including an "Intro to Folk Punk" series I'm working on.

Monthly playlists - planning to make a monthly playlist full of all the songs I've been bumping that month. Consisting of new music that I decided to write about as well as some classics (in my opinion).

hang out! leave a comment! let me know of any albums you think I have to listen to or else I will be unhappy with my life! I may still be unhappy afterwards though - no promises.

thankzzzzzzzz

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5 posts!

love my fans love my money

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DRUG CHURCH - PRUDE ALBUM REVIEW

If you grew up being really into music like I was there’s a strong possibility you went through a Beatles phase. Mine personally lasted for a long ass time, all starting with my dad giving me and my brother a mix cd with a big old sun as the cover with the words ‘Beatles Hits’ typed across the front. My dad would go on to claim that he “wasn’t really into the Beatles,” so he’s “not too sure why [he] made [us] that CD in the first place.” Wild, considering how much they ended up meaning to me, that there’s an alternative universe where that just didn’t happen, and I’m probably a lot cooler in that universe. I’ve done a lot of reading about the Beatles, which is helped by the fact that there are so many fucking books about them, and one story always stuck with me. It’s the story of the song “Twist-N-Shout” and how they recorded it last after a long day of recording. John’s voice was shot by the time they got to it so he just decided to yell the whole thing - resulting in the product we have today where your throat just can’t help but to itch as you listen to “musical genius” John Lennon screech over the rock-n-roll beat. 

I don’t know that that anecdote, or the sound of Lennon’s voice, necessarily did anything to inspire Drug Church. But it’s hard not to have a similar throat itch feeling as the album starts, the vocals gritty and half yelled just as they were on TNS. Except this time… it’s less painful, more relatable, not so much a throat itch now but a throat tickle - a tickle that just takes one solid “ahem” to go away. You understand why his voice is like that, feel the pain he feels - it’s not some dude screeching over a stolen R&B song - but an empath putting the weight of the world on his proverbial shoulders. Alright, that’s the end of the Beatles comparisons, psychotic for me to even compare the two when one band is a staple of rock and roll and the other band is The Beatles!    

Kidding.

Drug Church is a “post-hardcore” band from Albany, NY - also home of their screeching counterparts Prince Daddy & the Hyena (what the fuck is in that water??). I say post-hardcore in quotations because that doesn’t accurately describe the sound, at least not for their 2024 release PRUDE. I don’t know, maybe it is post-hardcore, if I had to categorize it I’d maybe say it’s pop-punk, or put it under the monotonously repeated moniker of “emo,” who cares though? Genres are bullshit. Drug has been releasing music under that name since 2012, it’s worth checking out just to feel the damage touring and, one has to assume, cigarettes have done to Patrick Kindlon (lead vocalist) over the years. In their 12 year run they never spent more than 3 years between releases, which isn’t Beatles numbers but in an age where every band is taking hiatuses for years, it’s that consistency fans crave.

PRUDE is a fast album, the longest song being their last one Peer Review which moves at a snail’s pace of three minutes and forty-three seconds. This causes their songs to be more condensed, less meandering, more purposeful in instrumentation and lyricism. Starting off with an excellent pace creator in Mad Care - a song about a sociopath hellbent on destroying his life, not realizing the people he brings along with him are affected by his actions too. Myopic, the lead single off this album, starts off with one of the best pop-punk riffs I’ve heard in recent times. This shit is straight off of Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy, except you aren’t presented with lyrics of heartache sung sweetly, but a personal song about a shit head kid we can only assume is the author of the story. You can still see that shit head kid come out every so often, no matter how hard you try to forget it it keeps coming back. “Don’t make me remember if I don’t have to,” he yells as the bridge comes to an end into a big swell of a breakdown. Also, best hook on the album hands down. 

Next is Hey Listen, the first song on the album where we start to feel the sympathy this singer can have for others. The lyrics of Drug Church usually take on a darker, more nihilistic form, nothing fucking matters! This is a nice change in pace - despite its more upsetting subject matter of a missing kid society has just forgotten about. Hey Listen, quiets things down a little bit before going into the heavy ass riff at the start of Demolition Man, their second single off the album. The lyrics are serotonin boosting, with images of dogs doing jobs dogs would do, all the while talking about how fucked man is, and it’s all of our collective fault for giving ourselves too much to do. It’s about the constant pursuit of happiness, whereas other animals have found that in simplicity. 

Business Ethics ushers in a low point of the album, this song uses tired rhymes (anytime someone rhymes work with jerk earnestly it’s like… c’mon) and it’s incredibly on the nose for an album that has been fairly on the nose already. Concept is fun, execution leaves a lot to be desired. Slide 2 Me starts off with another fantastic pop punk riff (forreal these riffs are so good and nostalgic ahhhh, so good) after that I feel like it’s almost too loud. Not stopping at any point or breaking it down, it can be hard to understand and grasp what’s going on. It’s probably my second least favorite of the album, but there’s a great distance between this and the aforementioned Business Ethics. 

Chow plays on familiar themes about not caring what everyone thinks about you, keeping your circle of friends small, and knowing there’s nothing you can do to change your past, so there’s no real reason to be scared. After that is The Bitters, probably my favorite song on the album, or at the very least the first one to really peak my interest on the first listen. Just the hook of “Wishing failure, on a stranger/eat shit until you choke/even parasites have the foresight/not to kill their hosts” speaks volumes on the type of person they’re trying to convey in the whole song. This recurring character of a sociopathic shit head. Yankee Trails continues the feeling of a flawed protagonist. Being told they keep making the same mistakes, they need to learn from them and “find new trouble” new mistakes for them to learn from - shaping them into an overall better human.

Finishing the album is the LONG ONE, Peer Review is an incredibly relatable song about thinking you are better than the folks you are in the same situation as. With the hook ending with the solid line of “can’t they see I’m nothing like them?” Not much more I want to really write about the song, go listen to it for yourself, it’s a great song.

Overall: This album isn’t a selfish album. Instead of being insular it talks about the experiences of others, while still relating it to their sense of self. It’s refreshing hearing an album that sounds like this musically, with lyrics that go beyond the shallowness of “fuck my bitch ex gf” that has taken over the genre as a whole since it’s inception. I was never a huge Drug Church fan, until now, maybe someday I’ll make a “Drug Church Hits” cd for my son, what a fucked up world that would be.

Grade: A-

Favorite Songs: The Bitters and Peer Review

(honestly didn't watch this before writing this article, watch as I'm wrong about everything lmao)

[bigfatmusicblog]

October Drift - Blame the Young ALBUM REVIEW

Growing up as I did in the mid-2000s we were a generation past MTV, the traditionally named MUSIC TELEVISION was going away from music, opting more for messy dramatic reality tv shows. It’s a cliche now to complain about how MTV doesn’t actually play music anymore - a subject usually left for boomers on Ultimate-Guitar messageboards. But the loss of music in MTV created a few other channels trying to capitalize on what MTV originally did. The biggest one to come out of that, at least for my money, is VH1. Now VH1 wasn’t the complete opposite of MTV, they maybe even had trashier reality tv at the time, however they had a program that me and thousands other got ready to every day - Jumpstart. 

I learned a ton of new music from Jumpstart, I’m lucky to have grown up in a time when alternative/indie rock still had a place on the mainstream charts, and I remember so vividly seeing the music videos for songs like ‘Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked’ by Cage the Elephant or ‘New Low’ by Middle Class Rut. This quite literally jumpstarted my love for bands that I still have love for to this day - I saw Cage the Elephant earlier this year and it was surreal seeing this song whose music video I have been watching for the last 13 years finally performed in front of me. Another huge song/moment for me when watching Jumpstart was the first time I saw the music video for “Sometime Around Midnight” by The Airborne Toxic Event - the quiet but steadily building indie rock, with the droning of the lead singer, all that matched with a bass player playing an electric bass with a fucking violin bow - this shit was awesome! And while there have definitely been bands before Airborne to make this specific type of music, this was my introduction to this new type of anthemic alternative rock. So fuck off, I don’t feel like doing more research on this, I’m gonna act like they just invented the genre.

So I’m gonna make an educated guess, based on no real fact other than how the music sounds, that October Drift had a very similar experience to me. Musically, from the very beginning, you can hear motifs and styles thick with that Airborne Toxic feeling. Blame the Young is the perfect way to start off this album, this title track does a great job at explaining the overall thesis behind the album coupled with the driving drum/bass beat. Finishing each verse with a version of “Blame the ____” it builds up dramatically through the song before culminating multiple times to instrumental breakdowns as the lead singer wails “Your best friend, you have/ oh, denial, denial” over it. The vocal performance in this song is very engaging, going from the low drone in the first verse, to the final verse basically being yelled with the same melody - it’s dope! 

The album continues with another one of my favorites on the album Demons. From the get go there is a real Killers vibe to it, with the drums and the guitar taking a backseat allowing the synth to take a simple but effective lead over it. Verses drop out to be quieter with just drums and guitar flares behind it before going into the pre-chorus, whose lyrics I love “Dressed in your ruin/sleep on a piece of broken heart” leading into the chorus and main request from the lead singer “Lay all your demons down on me.” This song is a fantastic follow-up to Blame the Young as it keeps the energy of it, while diving more into lyrics about personal relationships. This song and the next song Nothing Makes me Feel (The Way You Do) are both about different parts of emotionally abusive relationships. Demons paints the picture of a willful victim of an emotionally neglectful partner wanting to take on the burdens of their significant other no matter the cost, whereas Nothing Makes Me Feel is about staying with this emotionally neglectful person despite them constantly making you feel like shit. It’s this fun duality that connects the two.

Speaking of lyrics -  the lyrics on this album are fantastic. While some of them may be surface level, it’s still rife with metaphors - the best of which takes place on the song immediately following Nothing Makes me Feel, Wallflower. Talking about this song in general it starts off with a very fun production trick, placing the guitar in one headphone before the drums come in on both. Little things like that do a great job at making an album more interesting especially when without it the songs run a great risk of feeling too same-y. Lyrically, however, this song is about not being an active part in your own life. The term “wallflower” being a common descriptor of someone who goes to things like dances or concerts just to stand back against the wall, arms crossed. There is a common theme of apathy due to depression, something that none of us are able to control, which reinforces the idea of not being able to be an active part of your own life. 

We then bring the energy up again with Don’t Care - the shortest song on the album, that relies less on the beauty of the vocals and instrumentation, but instead moves at a breakneck speed with the lead singer wailing incomprehensibly over the chorus, the only real words squeaking out and understandable being the most important line of the song “I know you think I don’t care.” Next is Everybody Breaks - this song has an interesting beginning as it’s just vocals over a bass playing chords with the best of tones. Honestly, this whole album has fantastic bass tones, the grungy dirty distortion mixed with a compressor that brings out the real flavor of it, there’s so much of this album that’s just bass and drums. The guitar in general seems to not be of too much importance to the band, with it mainly being used to playing rhythm except when adding a little flair here and there. This song has another fantastic pre-chorus “Not waving but drowning, not waving but drowning/ and dragging you down, holding you down” creating this imagery of flailing arms in the middle of the ocean. Grasping on to whatever you can, you inadvertently drag whoever is out there with you. This is all before the self admission at the end of the chorus “I’m never gonna get it right,” which they repeat over the bridge leading to a big version of the pre-chorus with some of the lyrics changed, then going half-time into the final chorus making it big and dramatic. Great moves on all accounts, from production to songwriting, on that last little bit.

Borderline helps get the energy up again after Everybody Breaks using that ever popular “dun, dun dun” drum beat that always reminds me of a wedding for some reason? They go faster in the verses before going back to the slower “dun, dun dun” during the choruses. Paired with epic single strums, the chorus gets very dramatic - although I will say I am so tired of this “borderline” cliche that’s been in music forever. What borderline? Are you a coyote? Is she underage? I lived right by a border my entire life and never once asked someone to meet me “over the borderline” Genuinely, what the fuck does that mean? 

Then is the cleverly titled Tyrannosaurus Wreck - one of the other singles on this album. You can tell from the get go that this was written to be a single. It has a fun driving beat, with a simple chorus (“I’m a tyyyyyyy-rannosaurus”) that’s easy to sing along to with a fun ending singing “the ends are all coming apart” as the guitar purposely goes outside of the standard chord progression to create the feeling of coming apart. This also has the closest thing to a guitar solo that I’ve heard on this whole album - so yeah, single material all around. The only unnecessary thing is the literally 30 seconds of noise that plays after the song. So ridiculous, what’s the point, eh? 

Following that is probably my favorite song on the album Hollow which once again starts off with a bass heavy riff, drums and vocals, before adding extra distortion on the guitar for the dramatic chorus, repeating “you keep falling away/but I don’t wanna get you down/just like I do.” There is syncopation with the guitar and drums on the “you keep falling away” that just adds to the drama of the chorus and makes it fun to bang your head to. There is a quiet bridge where he continues to say the previous statement “just like I do” before going LOUD LOUD into the chorus again with another “guitar solo” (an interesting one, sounded almost like a theramin?). Oftentimes this album has gone from quiet to loud in the matter of seconds, I think this song has my favorite version of this from the bridge to the huge chorus. Just the quick disorienting clip on the guitar with “YOU KEEP FALLING AWAY” to bring them back into it, ahhh, chefs kiss, I love it.

Then is Heal, to me the most boring part of the album. It starts off with an irregular drum beat that’s probably in some time signature I’m too stupid to understand. It definitely catches your ears off the bat, especially as the guitar starts to play 4/4 over it and it works but still sounds slightly off? Definitely interesting musically, but this song otherwise doesn’t do anything for me, and I wonder why the decision was made to keep it on the album. I mean the album is 11 songs whereas a common length for an indie record like this is a clean round 10 songs, so there had to be intention to put this song on it - as this was the first song I would cut if I had to make it only 10 songs. I understand it’s probably very personal to the lead singer, but I think that’s maybe the only reason it ended up on this otherwise exciting album.

Rounding it all out is the final song on the album “Not Running Anymore” - the only explicit song on the album. Starts off again with a bass heavy rhythm section, the bass player on this band is fucking good, regularly opting to play chords as opposed to lead or standard note based rhythm based, it creates a much fuller sound. The initial chorus being just bass, violin, and vocals is beautiful before getting loud on the second verse. This album greatly benefits from having a fantastic opening song and finale song, both of which take their place and does their job perfectly. You couldn’t put this anywhere else on this album other than last and truly they saved on of the best on this album for last.

Overall: A good solid alternative/indie rock record. If you were disappointed with Airborne Toxic Event’s 2024 release like I was, I would definitely give this album a spin. It reminds me so much about what I loved with their previous releases, all the while putting their own personal touches on it to make it interesting. Really happy to have found this band, can’t wait to see what else they have in store. Some good old fashioned indie rock, good for the people, good for the culture, we love to see it.

Grade: B (B+ without Heal on it truthfully) Favorite Songs: Hollow and Blame the Young

[bigfatmusicblog]

The State of Punk: Dance-Punk and Cheap City

“We are the epitome of an art-rock band…” you can hear uttered in the background at the beginning of GWAR’s now legendary A.V. Undercover Session where they cover Kansas’ classic song Carry On My Wayward Son. I always loved this descriptor of the comedy-metal band because I feel like it’s the perfect representation of who they are. Donning elaborate costumes, using 70’s and 80’s type practical effects akin to those of greats like Screaming Mad George, it’d be impossible to do half of what they do without being nothing short of great artists. Now, while I love talking about Richmond’s greatest export GWAR - I’m not here to talk about them, motherfucker! I’m here to talk about Massachusetts’ own Cheap City - the epitome of a dance-punk band.

Dance-punk as a subgenre has a long history, as long as punk has existed dancing has been crucial to its continued success. From clubs in places like Chicago, having themed “punk nights” playing records to a crowd of sweaty, dancing punks - to slam dancing being introduced and still being done to this day; it’s impossible not to move around when the bpm gets above 120. The subgenre dance-punk however wasn’t named until after post-punk (which actively happened at the same time as regular punk music so, like, whatever) was created. There are a lot of bands that can be attributed to creating dance-punk however I like to think that it was brought into the limelight by bands like Bow Wow Wow, who used unfamiliar jungle beats all backed by the constant movement at their live shows by lead singer Annabelle Lwin. Mass media was starting to see people dressed like punks, dancing and making music to dance to. And, yes, Bow Wow Wow is a fucking punk band, look at them. They’re a punk band.

After that there was a long time where dance-punk wasn’t really thought of, especially with the popularity of hair metal in the 80s, people were finding different music to dance to. It wasn’t until the late 90s and early 2000s with LCD Soundsystem, Bloc Party, and Franz Ferdinand, that dance-punk was hoisted back into the zeitgeist and being played on the radio again. This is the era of dance-punk that I grew up with as a kid obsessed with fast guitar based music. Singing Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out on the video game Singstar Rock and playing Helicopter by Bloc Party on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - this genre that was seemingly dead was now being force fed to me at every corner. 

Once the 2010’s came around, dance-punks' popularity came to a screeching halt which a lot of people attribute to the hiatus of LCD Soundsystem. Now that the largest pioneer in the current scene was no more, it seemed like maybe another death of the genre was in store. Luckily talented musicians are born every year, and the later you’re born the more genres you’re able to pull from to inspire your music. This has created a modern era of dance-punks made up of bands like Viagra Boys, Parquet Courts, and the criminally underrated Cheap City. All of which are able to draw from a variety of influences old and young to create the most interesting era of dance-punk to date.

I found out about Cheap City through a facebook post of one of my friends sharing their new album, and the main subject of my affection, BLUE DANCERS. Big shout out to my friend that I won’t name for bringing this to my attention, I’m sorry for everything bad I ever said behind your back (just kidding). The thing that I think differentiates this album and Cheap City as a whole from the current pack of dance-punk bands is the constant emphasis on PARTYING BAYBEEEEEE!!!!! From the very first song, aptly named CHEAP CITY PARTY PROGRAM, you know what this band is about. The loud, yelled vocals spewing words faster than possible to keep up with, culminating in the phrase “We rock the party all night every night.” That combined with the sweet flourishes of saxophone, it’s easy to get hooked and strap in for the rest of this chaotic-good album.

That last aspect, the constant presence of a saxophone, is another thing making this album stand out as a certifiable dance classic. Without the saxophone I don’t think this band is really dance-punk, as you listen to the album you’ll hear more inspiration of bands like Heavy, Heavy, Low, Low in the vocals and other instrumentation. And while that’s impressive and so much fun to listen to, it doesn’t always present itself in the most danceable of manners. It’s impossible, however, to not dance when a saxophone is present. I don’t make the rules or understand the exact psychological reasoning behind what those sweet sultry notes do to our serotonin receptors, but I know it gets me groovin’. Toni Batey is the name of the saxophonist on this album and it’d be completely inappropriate of me to not call them out by name - what they do to push this album past another punk album can not be stated enough.

Some songs on this album that stand out to me are CHEAP CITY PARTY PROGRAM, K.O. OK?, SLEEPLESS IN SAVANNAH, SCORPIO 2007, DISARMING EYES, and lastly a song I want to talk about a little more in depth is the raucous, chaotic, aptly named JUST A LITTLE CRAZY (although just a LITTLE crazy might be an understatement). 

This is a dance-punk anthem starting out with a classic staple of the genre, cowbell, this is then coupled with a face-melting bass riff, before diving into the first bit of craziness on this song. You are all of a sudden introduced to this wall of sound, sounding at times like DeVotchKa and other artists in the unfortunately named g*psy-punk subgenre. After a few bars of that initial bout of manic instrumentation, we cut it back to just drums and bass as the vocals of Brendan Blendell begin their typical toneless (not in a bad way) wail, finding nooks and crannies in the midst of instruments to speak their piece.

 All of this leads to the first “hook” of this song, only really calling it a hook because it says the song's name in it, and is placed in a way that feels like a hook despite it never being repeated. “Cause I went just a little crazy/not too much, just enough/I thought, ‘Moderation’s important’/but feeling insane is just the stuff” while this sentiment I’m sure comes from a personal place to Blendell I feel like it also describes the band at a base level. It’s fun to feel insane when you’re listening to music, that’s part of the reason why I love the aforementioned GWAR and HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW. But they hit the nail on the head with the idea that moderation is important in how much you want to experiment and go crazy as a band. This concept is what keeps this album so fun and danceable, as opposed to just noise, although if I showed this band to my girlfriend or mom they might have that “it’s just noise” opinion, but they don’t get it, they never will.

After this Blendell leads us into another verse, invoking more images of things that would drive any sane person to the other side of sanity, “give me twelve day weeks/give me feral screams” and sentiments like that are prevalent throughout the song, though good luck trying to catch it with all that’s going on in the background. This then ends with the real star of the song, the second “real hook” or “bridge” or whatever the hell you want to call it, the burning question they’re afraid to ask: “WHEN WHEN WHEN, when does a FIRE FIRE FIRE, in a ROOM ROOM ROOM become a ROOM ON FIRE/when does a FIRE FIRE FIRE, in a ROOM ROOM ROOM, become a ROOM ON FIRE, become a ROOM ON FIRE!” This phrase is immediately repeated in gang vocals, reminiscent of classic DJ call and responses, the same phrase is repeated again this time more so in the background as another wall of sound is introduced to us.

Then is a brief intermission, I guess? The guitar, drums, bass and keys all of a sudden start playing random seemingly unconnected notes for a couple of bars before going back into the initial melody/wall of sound with the first phrase of the song uttered over and over again “IT’S A DUTCH PINK!” before finishing the song with the repeating of the question “Did I waste my whole life hanging my brain from powerlines?” which I don’t know what that means but, sounds cool!

OVERALL:

This album kicks ass, from the insane instrumentation, the moments that make you dance, the vocals being yelled tonelessly (not in a bad way) over these bonkers, for the lack of a better phrase and I’ve used it so much in this but there’s really no better way to describe them, walls of sound. There’s so much you feel like you miss when you first listen to it, which makes it replayable as fuck. The whole history of dance-punk has lead up to this album, which also steals musical motifs from emocore/skramz to fucking DISCO. It’s a crazy piece of art, not too much, just enough.

GRADE: B+

peep this awesome video of them playing a couple of the songs I mentioned including JUST A LITTLE CRAZY. this band RIPS!!!

[bigfatmusicblog]

honeyglaze - Real Deal ALBUM REVIEW

Anyone who has ever been in a three piece band can tell you how hard it sometimes is. Especially compared to playing in a four piece or more where there are more people to hide behind -  in a three piece you’re typically the lone driving force behind your instrument. There’s nowhere to hide on that stage. Now there are also benefits that come to playing in a smaller band as well - less egos to deal with, can probably tour in a hatchback and, if you want to get capitalistic about it, there are less people to split the overall payment with. 

All that to say, honeyglaze is a three piece outfit from South London. Genre-wise I have read online people refer to them simply as Post-Punk - and I think this broad stroke sort of downplays all the different parts that make up honeyglaze. Jangly math rock riffs interspersed with random breakdowns reminiscent of mid-2000s post-hardcore bands, melodies and vocalizations that go from indie-folk artist to a dry Londoner talk-sing. honeyglaze is a lot more than just another South London post-punk band - maybe we’ll call it post-mathcore? post-math-folkcore? Whatever, who cares about genres anyways? (it’s me, I care too much)

The most impressive thing about this band is the fact that they’re able to delve into so many different genres and inspirations as a three piece. When I first listened to this album, because of the robust guitars, clever bass riffs with Anouska Sokolow’s vocals almost floating above it all like a low cloud, I thought they were five strong at least. But, GOD, a fucking THREE PIECE?!?! DOING ALL OF THIS?!?!? I was already hooked to this band but this fact alone made me realize that they are something truly special - especially with this strong STRONG sophomore album REAL DEAL.

Real Deal is a beautiful album that plays on themes of femininity, not feeling comfortable in your own body, and general anxieties about society paired with images of popular culture. The album starts off with the beautiful Hide - this song acts as a precursor to the whole album, being used in the same way an overture is often used, it gives you a taste of the musical themes that will be repeated throughout. Going from a grungy riff to the soft felt like nature of the clean guitar that plays behind the verses, culminating in a huge loud breakdown - it teaches your brain that this is what a honeyglaze song is in the world of Real Deal. 

The album continues on with Cold Caller, probably the lightest song on the album both subject-wise as well as the playful lead that continues throughout the song. This song is followed by Pretty Girls, one of the singles for this album, and it makes sense why this song was a single that they chose. This is the first song on the album that really plays with the overarching concept throughout the album, which are feminine struggles in a modern day world. It’s also the first song where you really get a taste of the cleverness behind Sokolow lyrics. “Pink, I wear pink on pink/I’m in touch with my feminine side/I always wear pink” she sings in the second verse, putting a slight snarl of sarcasm behind the feminine side line. 

Following Pretty Girls is Safety Pins the start of a darker feeling in the album, with a heavier, more driving riff, especially compared to what we’ve heard so far. There’s a gorgeous moment in this song that’s a real highlight of Sokolow’s voice as she randomly glides upwards on the line “I wish that I didn’t linger” evoking the likes of The Zombies or that more trad indie-folk sound I mentioned earlier. Continuing on with the dark themes of Safety Pins is Don’t - potentially the most badass song on this album. It’s about conversations with men that don’t listen due to internalized sexism, whether conscious of it or not. She gives you warning that she’s not to be fucked with, not only shown through the lyrics and the flat, angry, vocal performance, but the playfully dark riff that is prevalent through the entire song. What I like about this run of two songs is that it shows the true talent and duality of Sokolow’s vocal ability and performance. The differences between the two songs are noticeable and yet they go together so well. I will say however, that last bridge/breakdown does feel a little “Dodge Ram” commercial to me, glad to know it came from a cooler band though - we all write butt rock sometimes.

The next three songs are all on the softer side, which isn’t to say it’s never loud, but the loudness and fuzz take a backseat. Starting with TMJ it’s whiplash compared to how raucous Don’t was mere seconds ago. This song has the first real hook on the album and has a great variation on the typical move of loud build up into loud break down, where it has a loud build up towards the end but then subverts your expectations going back into the soft beautiful riff that’s played at the top of the song. After that is I Feel it All a song that plays on feeling from :01 where it starts off with an overwhelming soundscape I believe intended to invoke the feeling of, well, feeling. Then is Ghost, again on the softer side, but has the best hook on the entire album. Invoking relatable imagery of DVDs stacked on the floor with metaphors drawn on the most mundane of items. This song also has the prettiest lyric on the entire album, “You can see me naked without taking off my clothes” woof, much to think about - Billy Ray Cyrus.

Following that is TV the best fucking song on this whole album. I have listened to this song on repeat since the release, it’s definitely in my Top Ten of the year, and closer to one than ten. It starts off with an admission, seeing someone who is as put together as you wish you could be, even in the smallest of activities such as changing channels with confidence. As someone who grew up in front of the TV, watching these same home renovations shows, making plans to completely transform my life, plans so grandiose they’re impossible to follow up on - this song is incredibly relatable to me despite my inability to relate to the feminine experience. Also it does this little thing during the instrumental breakdown where it makes it sound like your speakers are broken? Just a lot of fun, little frills like that are what make this song and album so good. Listen to this as loud as you fucking can.

The penultimate song on the album is also the title track, Real Deal, the heavy bass in both the guitarists and bass riffs that play off each other is once again putting them in a grunge realm. With loud heavy guitars blaring throughout, vocally you see someone actively gaining confidence as the song continues. Starting off almost sarcastically saying “I’m the real deal” as each verse ends you begin to believe it more and more - and as the verses continue the lyrics invoke more confidence, a confidence that was seemingly impossible to find early on on this album. 

The final song on the album is Movies, a song about escapism, its most impressive aspect in the instrumentation. Starting off with a complex quirky “drum riff” wherein both the guitar and bass take a rhythm position, allowing the drummer to play lead. Halfway through the song, after some post-hardcore droning about wanting to go to the movies “when there’s no one I want to be,” there’s a Vampire Weekend type riff showcasing the fun abilities of the guitar player. After that initial verse under that new motif it’s the Bassists turn creating a melodic lead that gets repeated a few times more. The song ends soft, with the last minute and a half being almost pointless. Could've ended on a higher note but how do you end something like Real Deal? I don’t know, and sometimes I wish it never ended.

OVERALL:

This album is about inner struggles, not only presented through the personal lyrics but how the instruments are almost battling with each other for supremacy. However much they struggle though, it comes together beautifully. This isn’t an album I would skip, it draws you in, constantly making you feel like you missed something on the last listen through, making you eager to start it all over again. Combining all of that with the fact that this is a three piece makes it all the more impressive, I hope they tour in the US soon and I hope I can see them. Good shit.

GRADE: A

[bigfatmusicblog]

THE STATE OF PUNK

FIDLAR vs. Alien Nosejob

On Friday September 20th two punk albums were released - I’m sure in the grand scheme of things a lot more punk albums were released on that day, but for the sake of this article, TWO PUNK ALBUMS WERE RELEASED. Both albums are very different in terms of sound and production quality, as well as lyrical content and what each artist was trying to say with this collection of songs. On the surface, other than the fact that they are both punk albums released on September 20th, there is absolutely no reason to compare these two records. They are both so far on different ends of the entire punk spectrum, picture the Sistine Chapel except God and Adam are each in completely different time zones, still they reach out for each other. I will try to bridge this seemingly insurmountable gap between the two with this article, and maybe by the end we’ll see that we aren’t so different, you and I.

FIDLAR is a band I have been into probably since their inception. I remember hearing/downloading Awkward from a music sharing site in the 2010’s (I think probably Noisetrade, which, rip Noisetrade forreal) and since then I was hooked. I was drawn to their painfully honest lyrics about not feeling like yourself in your body and getting fucked up with their friends. The latter of which I had absolutely no experience with at the time, and still don’t have exactly the experience to relate to lyrics like “I feel like a cokehead” or “Cocaine keeps running around in my brain”. I think the taboo nature of what they were speaking about in their early songs, especially to me as a straight edge Christian kid by nature, is what kept me listening to their self-titled debut even years after its release. Shit, I almost made my senior quote ‘FIDLAR’ (meaning Fuck it Dog, Life’s a Risk), but was too afraid to explain to the principal what it meant. I won’t go as far as to say this band changed my life, but they did get me through High School that’s for sure.

ALIEN NOSEJOB is a band I have been familiar with since September 20th 2024. In fact I was so unfamiliar with them while listening to this album I didn’t even realize Alien Nosejob isn’t necessarily a band but rather the “anything-goes solo project of Jake Robertson.” A project that has spanned seven albums as well as several EPs since 2018. The genre is as fluid as the (clever famous Australian River here) going from hardcore punk to 60s influenced garage rock. Doing research on this artist has been a delight and I encourage you to do a deep dive on Alien Nosejob if this is the first you're hearing of them too.

I feel like we can all agree that both of these albums are punk albums. Leaving specifics and subgenres out of it the very core to both of these albums is punk. For me if you're unsure if an album is punk I'd say ask yourself if the lyrics, or music, or attitude behind that album is one that a shithead kid might utter or exude. Both of these albums OOZE shithead kid energy, however they are posed in different ways. 

The biggest way that SURVIVING THE DREAM presents itself as bratty is within the lyrics. From the very beginning in FIX ME as he yells over anthemic single strums on the guitar, words that could’ve easily been nabbed straight from a middle schoolers diary. “It’s too hard to fix me/I know you’ll try/… cause I’m the type of crazy that’s not the cute type” creates the feeling of a bang cut emo girl screaming these lyrics to herself in her mirror as she got ghosted again. This theme of being sad, unfixable, and a general piece of shit continues throughout the album coming to a head in I DONT WANNA DO THIS - a song wherein Zac of FIDLAR continually repeats simple but relatable sentiments such as “I don’t wanna do this/I don’t wanna be here”. I will say as a general note I found myself relating to a lot of the lyrics on this album, more so than I have on any of their past albums. If you spent a lot of time listening to emo and pop punk in your mid to late teenage years like I did you won’t have any issue feeling understood by the general thesis of the album let alone the broad, often melodramatic emotions FIDLAR portrays in this album. We all feel that way sometimes.

Now, TURNS THE COLOUR OF BAD SHIT by Alien Nosejob isn’t necessarily devoid of shithead kid lyrics. As opposed to the introspective and emotional nature of SURVIVING THE DREAM this album focuses more on the outer. Sometimes this album feels like the Burn Book of someone in a local band - usually using the opportunity to talk shit about punk bands like FIDLAR. These lyrics are probably a bit more niche but anyone who has spent anytime in any sort of local music scene will find themselves laughing along to phrases like “45 year olds with guitars/Living out their teenage dreams“ in the song Another Uniform. One of the biggest ways this album finds itself within that shithead realm is through the instrumentation - a lot of chord based riffs often reminiscent of late 70’s proto-punk, there’s a certain grunginess to the whole sound. That’s not to say the instrumentation on this album feels one note, something that’s a fun side to producing solo projects like this is the ability to sort of put any instrument you want to in it, or at least any one that makes sense and is readily available. Randomly on this album you can hear glimpses of various synths and brass instruments, adding the right amount of sprinkles on top of a melting ice cream cone.

Because FIDLAR has spent more time in the limelight, term used loosely, the instrumentation on their album is a lot more polished. Even when they go especially HARD in songs like NUDGE and GET OFF MY WAVE there is still a good amount of squeaky clean feeling behind it, though you don’t really notice it unless you listen to an album like Turns the Colour of Bad Shit immediately after. Something that you can’t exactly produce at different levels, no matter how fancy your equipment is in comparison, is vocal performance on the album. 

In my opinion a defining characteristic in truly good punk music is good vocal performance. From the wavering built in flange of Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedys to the dead pan dry british vocals of IDLES if you want to stand out you need to, well, stand out. Both of these albums have impeccable vocal performances and that’s sort of the biggest driving force behind my immediate infatuation with them. Zac Carper of FIDLAR has had fairly consistently good performances throughout their discography. His half yell that comes from the back of his throat will have a true empath going for the throat coat tea. SURVIVING THE DREAM is no different, he has his classic vocal style still prevalent throughout the album, going harder than he has in quite some time. Jake Robertson of Alien Nosejob has also had a consistent voice in all of his previous projects - however I think his performance on this is probably his best. I genuinely thought upon first listen that there were two separate vocalists in this band. He seamlessly goes between the dry flat desert that is a typical Aussie vocalist, a la Courtney Barnett, into an almost Mike D of The Beastie Boys impression to place emphasis wherever necessary. The latter affectation is a stand out point as Jake seems to reach into that bag way more on this album versus his previous. These vocalists and their way of approaching the art of punk vocals I think is the thing that will give these albums lasting power, at least it’s kept me listening.

OVERALL:

I wrote way too many words about two probably insignificant punk albums in the grand robust history of punk rock. Both of these albums are definitely flawed and in a way that’s to both of their benefit. I don’t know what else to say.

GRADES:

SURVIVING THE DREAM - B+

TURNS THE COLOUR OF BAD SHIT - B- (I absolutely cannot stand Bird Strike srry)