Hardcore for Nerds

moneyfire:

Battlestations ~Fight Like Apes

Number 3 of 2009: …Golden Medallion ~Fight Like Apes

There is a serious problem with U.S. bands trying to do the synth thing, they just aren’t getting any better. Sure some good albums have come out and there are some fun bands to see live but overall the genre seems to be 75% of everything plus some other influence which is supposed to make them unique/new/edgy. Fuck that shit. It’s all well and good but after 20-30 spins I’m more or less done with an album. I’ve used this analogy before but it really seems like 98.5% of bands that more or less end up lumped within the genre are bubblegum: great at first, chew it obsessively, quickly losses its taste and then totally spent. I love these albums for a month but I’m not coming back to them.

Dublin’s Fight Like Apes turn that shit on its ear (I feel bad lumping Fight Likes Apes in with the synthpop crew but as I try to get friends to listen, it seems to be the easiest genre inroad, illustrating the frustrating nature of subgenre, more often time limiting but labeling does retain some useful value in taxonomy). More than adept with their hooks, they’ve written some seriously catchy jams. However they are far, far more than their hooks. MayKay perfectly alternates her sweet and saccharine with sharp tongued vocals with her hard edged lyrical stylings lending a snide knowingness and depth to the music. The McLusky comps are of course fair and the band does a great job mixing in the influence, while repurposing it for their own ends. Hey, they even write lyrics that are worth a damn. In sum, they play emotion and reality deftly off each other and use their pop hook bounce and postpunk edge to similar effect.  I could go into far more depth with the FLApes album but I’m trying to keep this brief; perhaps the best way to sum up the album is that the first 4 songs are better than anything else released by any “similar” band this year but those are not their best work. The magnum opus of the album is “Battlestations.” I could write a post about that song, so this won’t do it justice but briefly it is the best example of songwriting on the album and in its scope feels far closer to a 5 minute track than its humble 3:30is run time, its the sort of track that makes you embarrass yourself on the morning commute. Now they just need to play the US, seriously what the fuck is up with that?

cool to see response like this outside of Ireland (and the UK). I think they might have played a showcase in New York a year or so ago, plus SXSW, but few bands that aren’t major, mainstream success stories (or are deluded into thinking they are) or just really like travelling/the DIY experience (e.g. So Cow, Heathers) go to the expense of a US tour. I wouldn’t really know, but FLApes could be on the cusp of making it viable at this stage. [The real point being that they’ve done the sensible, hard-working thing and toured the UK heavily, where they can (and have) made an impact.]

And Battlestations is one of their best live songs, too.

Fight Like Apes - ‘Jake Summers’ (original recording from the How Am I Supposed To Kill You If You Have All The Guns? EP, 2007)

“Ireland has, quite simply, never seen a band like Fight Like Apes. It’s not because they eschew guitars, or use kitchen implements as stage props. It’s not because they treat each gig as if it were their last, and it’s certainly not because they’re inevitably destined for international renown. Mostly, it’s because the quartet refuse to take themselves seriously, acting as a palette-cleansing antidote to the dour “woolly jumper brigade” that dragged Irish music into the depths of despair not a decade ago. They’ve polarised opinions like no other band in recent memory too; those who “get” Fight Like Apes adore them unswervingly, while their detractors gnash teeth in search of adjectives to describe their “gimmick”. Yet it’s only a gimmick if there’s no substance underneath, and their astonishing debut album Fight Like Apes and The Mystery of the Golden Medallion , an album that encompasses melancholy and whimsy (both lyrically and musically), is testament to their worth.” (Lauren Murphy in the Ticket’s list of the 50 best Irish music acts this April - Fight Like Apes were #4)

I seem to remember that it was ‘Lend Me Your Face’ which got me into them, and I may or may not have been aware of this, their first single, when it came out. However, it’s nice to go back to the original EPs - most of the songs of which were recycled and re-recorded for last year’s album - because, whatever you can say about the quality of the recordings, it’s the memory of the sound which comes back now.

exspectator:

octavechords:

Blood Brothers - Peacocks skeleton with crooked feathers

para Mave y su fascinación con esqueletos

<3

Still a fan of this record.

 I can see why FLApes chose John Goodmanson to produce their album.