Fucking Badass Review, hot damn, thanks man

Fat History Month – “Fucking Despair” LP – Sophomore Lounge [Album As Art #172]

Fat History Month - "Fucking Despair" LP - Sophomore Lounge

Just as I start bemoaning the absence of Oxes-/Race Car Riot-ish math-rock in today’s conversation I stumble upon Fucking Despair and … well, there you have it: A band – Fat History Month — that has it all. Incisive drumming, guitar riffs that sing and shriek without resorting to distortion, bass that chases it all down and vocals that manage the compositions well, with melody and urgency. They’re never too far off, and you don’t want them to go away. Very sneaky, indeed; audio assassins for hire, shooting to kill with a decent production set-up to boot.

When the guitars meander and spiral through the air with complete precision and control I’m reminded most of Modest Mouse, one band that truly never met an instrumental breakdown it didn’t like. FHM believe just as vehemently, and that’s when they excel — when all concerns melt away and all that’s left is riff and rhythm and spark and smoke. If they were even a hint heavier, they would beShearing Pinx (though SP delve into more open expanses and have about 100 more releases out than Fat; give it time); if they were lighter, they might well be …REO Speedwagon? Shit no, that ain’t right. Maybe Holopaw? No no … wait, I’ve got it: They’d be Chin Up Chin Up, or maybe even Make Believe. HA!

The 11-minutes-plus jaunt “You Can Pick Your Nose…” instills that old giddy, just-comin’-up-on-Drive Like Jehu-and-Death Cab For Cutie-and-Pinback vibe. Very basic, very Appleseed Cast taken down a notch, very fiery when it gets its dander up … You’ve never heard strictly clean guitars ratchet up intensity this effortlessly (even Slint used to scratch their shit up, especially in the early years) track-in, track-out, nor have you heard many singers that can hold their own when compositions this complex and shift-prone present themselves (I can say that I, personally, in almost 21 years of serious jamming, have never played with a single vocalist that can handle math-rock in any way, shape or form).

Fat History Month make it sound easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for the listener. Dynamics shift wildly, sandcastles of sound are built and flooded, then rebuilt and double-flooded before another eventual rebuild and flood-flood-floody … Such a wide-eyed and enthusiastic presentation won’t be ignored for long, folks. When these white kids put down their KAOS PADS “WHOO” and pick up guitars again, it’ll be groups like FHM that will have been in on the joke long before it’s widely told. I’d put this record up against 90 percent of the music I’ve heard over the last few years, if not more. I have a special LP shelf space reserved for records I revisit too constantly to chance to the mega MINDFUK that is my collection overall; I’m not yet sure if Fucking Despair will quite make it to this shelf (only folks like Sun Ra, Joe Meek, Vincent Gallo, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Zach Hill, Duster and John Phillips [solo] do), but it’s definitely earned the right to be part of the conversation.

http://gumshoegrove.com/2012/04/04/fat-history-month-fucking-despair-lp-sophomore-lounge-album-as-art-172/