Name: Fang IslandFrom: Brooklyn, New York
Story: High fives all 'round!
Sound: Stadium math-rock joy
Sometimes, bands do your job for you. Fang Island describe their sound as "everyone high-fiving everyone." And, well, given they've so accurately, so evocatively, so wondrously captured the essence of their ecstatic, frenetic music in the space of four words and one hyphen, well, you, the music critic, have suddenly been made redundant.
The Brooklyn-based bros play party music for nerds. Essentially, they're a math-rock band; a largely-instrumental juggernaut in which dueling guitar-lines snake around each other in complex, escalating patterns. But, where other tight-rock dudes just seem uptight, Fang Island sound like they're jamming unto the joy fantastic. Music critics like throwing the term "life-affirming" around a lot, but, hearing these soaring, overdriven guitar leads, thunderous drum-fills, and chanted vocals, all delivered without a hint of irony, you almost start to believe it.
Yes! Being Alive! Awesome!
Fang Island's freshly-released, self-titled debut album is stuffed with cuts built on on such a lust-for-life; the best of which, to my ears, is "Life Coach" (which you can own below). Listening to their record reminds me of seeing Ponytail play live; witnessing an audience of otherwise-jaded hipsters just letting it all hang out, dancing up a dorky storm, powered to new heights of sincerity and revelry by a band playing super-tight, dueling-guitar rock. Fang Island are like that, but like a more Andrew W.K version of that.
In support of their record, the band're playing all over the America. And the possibility of strangers high-fiving each other in the audience does seem to be suspiciously high.
- Listen: Fang Island "Life Coach"
- Listen: Fang Island "Daisy"
March 23: New Orleans, LA - Dragon's Den
March 24: Athens, GA - Caledonia Lounge
March 25: Atlanta, GA - The Drunken Unicorn
March 26: Greenville, NC - Tipsy Teapot
March 27: Baltimore, MD - Floristree
April 3: Hartford, CT - Trinity College
April 5: Brooklyn, NY - The Knitting Factory
April 11: Washington DC - Rock & Roll Hotel
April 15: Boston, MA - the Middle East Downstairs
April 16: Montréal, QC - La Sala Rossa
April 17: Toronto, ON - the Garrison
April 18: Cleveland, OH - The Grog Shop
April 19: Indianapolis, IN - Radio Radio
April 21: Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
April 22: Madison, WI - High Noon
April 23: Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar
April 24: Omaha, NE - Slowdown Jr.
April 26: Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
April 27: Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
April 29: Seattle, WA - Neumo's
April 30: Vancouver, BC - the Biltmore
May 1 Portland, OR - the Hawthorne
May 2 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
May 4 Sacramento, CA - Blue Lamp
May 5: Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
May 6: Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
May 7: San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
May 8: Los Angeles, CA - the Echoplex
May 9: San Diego, CA - the Casbah
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