It’s been close to a decade now since So-Cal punk band FIDLAR, acronym for the skate culture mantra Fuck It Dog Life’s A Risk, first began to make some noise. Formed in 2009 by brothers Elvis (guitar/vocals) and Max Kuehn (drums), sons of longtime LA musician Gary Kuehn of 80s California punk outfit T.S.O.L., friends Zac Carper (guitar/vocals) and Brandon Schwartzel (bass) rounded out the lineup and by 2012 the band signed to New York based independent record label Mom + Pop Music. FIDLAR’s 2013 self-titled first album went on to debut at #5 on Billboard’s Heatseekers and #2 on the Alternative New Artist chart.
Global tours with the Pixies, Hives, Black Lips and Wavves followed as well as a successful 2015 sophomore record Too, again topping Billboard’s highly influential Heatseekers record chart. After a lengthy break, one which involved newfound sobriety for frontman Zac Carper, FIDLAR headed back to the studio and, in a period of just over 18 months from 2017 through to 2018, painstakingly assembled all 41 minutes and 44 seconds of the 13 tracks that make up their latest testament Almost Free, a cheeky reference to the marked decline in music sales over the last 20 years as well as the cultural devaluation of music in general.
Having recruited a highly unlikely candidate in the person of Grammy nominated Ricky Reed (CeeLo Green, Pitbull, Robin Thicke, Meghan Trainor, Leon Bridges, Kesha, Halsey) to produce the album, FIDLAR, from the onset clearly set out to challenge themselves far beyond the narrow confines of any one single genre of music. Of the recording process, Carper remarked, “Each song was meticulously thought about. It was a bouncing back and forth between us and a producer over the course of a year and a half. Some of the songs, we had a beat and decided to add a bunch of shit to it, and that was the vibe. But there were moments that I never thought would’ve sounded how they do on the record, It’s just such a weird record for us, as a whole. We have horns on this record, fucking trumpets and saxophones and trombones and shit! We went for it, we just completely fucking went for it.”
Recorded at the historic Sunset Sound recording studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California (where the first two Doors albums were recorded as well as albums by Guns N’ Roses, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys) Almost Free boldly announces its arrival with the shrill sound of an air raid siren segueing into a fiery sequence of five unforgiving smack down tracks (Get Off My Rock, Can’t You See, By Myself, Flake, Alcohol). Not ones to shy away from controversy FIDLAR lyrically speak their truth throughout taking on timely concerns from gentrification to identity politics, shallow popular culture and the hazards of substance abuse, all the while rocking to a steady uncompromising beat. Nowhere is this more evident than on the track Too Real
“You can blame it on the left
Or you can blame it on the right
No, just admit you just like to fight
No, you just like to fight
You’ve gone so far to the left
You ended up on the right
You’ve gone so far to the right
You don’t care if you’re right
Are you really feeling guilty
About being white?
What’s that like?”
One of the strongest releases 2019 so far, FIDLAR have managed to sequence one of the most cohesive and sonically engaging first sides of a rock n roll LP in decades. Music to think to while you’re shaking that ass.
Rating 9/10 Star Rating 4.5/5
2019 Song Of The Day Club 6/52