Fair To Midland
This band is freaking awesome. They have invaded my consciousness like no other band has done in years.
I've had some success via the IQ forum in the past by bigging up certain albums. Certainly I turned a few people on to the Decemberists last year and there have been some positive reactions to Shooter Jennings so I find it inexplicable that no-one ever commented on the many posts I made regarding this band. The honourable exception being the Ogster who has also acquired the discography - almost certainly from my hard drive - after hearing me play nothing else for about 6 weeks solid.
I feel this is an appropriate place to give a little love back to FTM in the hope that I can inspire someone else....anyone else.....to give them a go. They deserve it.
I checked them out when I was in my Post-Rock phase just after Xmas. I'd picked up the odd mention of them here and there and mistakenly had thought they fell in with the Post-Rockers. Oh, how wrong! I was having one of my blissful iPod Fridays at work and that day elected to plow straight through the FTM discography. "Eh?", I thought, almost immediately, "this ain't no instrumental guitar band trading on repeated riffage." Instead, what assaulted my ears was rough, kind of thrashy with alternate cookie monster vocals and almost off-key harmonies. Still, there was obviously something there. I noticed a keen but unusual sense of melody which definitely pulled me in and kept me listening.
What I was hearing was the band's debut album - The Carbon Copy Silver Lining - which was recorded way back in 2001. It's always very hard to put into words exactly what makes a particular band's sound attractive to you. I go for melody immediately and singability long term but several bands who have that in spades fail to engage me. This band jumped that hurdle and kept on running. I was probably about halfway through the album when I realised that I was definitely going to be listening to this a lot even though it was certainly outside of my usual listening-zone being, in parts, substantially heavier than I tended towards, albeit the thrashiness was interspersed with moments of quiet beauty. What made me think that this was a band to watch was the way the vocals were layered with atypical harmonies and phrasing that still sounded 'right'. That and they sounded like no other band I had ever heard.
So on I moved to the next album. Oh my! What a sea change, it was like going from your first car to a Ferrari. You loved that first one and it had its irritating quirks that you were used to but then you get in that Ferrari and you suddenly realise what driving's all about. OK, excuse the poor metaphor but I'm just trying to find a way to express the sheer step-up in quality between the two albums. inter.funda.stifle was independently released in 2004 as was Carbon Copy previously but somewhere along the line the band just got immensely better. The song writing is more focused; whereas there was a bit of kitchen sink attitude to CCSL, here the arrangements are much tighter and the thrashy aspects take more of a back seat. It's still heavy as fuck in places but targeted and used to counterpoint and contrast. The band added a full time keyboardist and believe me that makes a difference to the washes of sound and atmosphere.
Check out this song, A Seafarer's Knot originally from that album and while you're at it, take a look at Keyboardist Matt Langley's set-up, I have never seen anyone play like that before. Also, marvel as frontman Darroh Sudderth runs through the gamut of vocal techniques. I'm awed by his range.
So this Texan band continued to ply their trade amidst general apathy. As is usual for groups treading a slightly off-center line, radio stations gave them scant coverage and any ground gained was simply on word of mouth. Somewhere around this time, I believe, they considered chucking it all in but as with all fairy stories, there was an unlikely saviour waiting in the wings. Serje Tankian from System Of A Down had heard the album and caught a couple of their gigs. Impressed with both the music and the energetic and unpredictable stage shows he signed them up as the first band on his vanity label Serjical Strike which had major label support.
After putting out an EP, the band hit the studio again to record their first album with any serious backing. Feeling that they hadn't done justice to several of the songs on inter.funda. and aware of its limited availability, they chose to re-record them taking advantage of the upgraded facilities and an experienced producer. Really it's just like polishing a diamond, the basics were all there anyway. This new album - Fables From A Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True - was released in 2007 and allowed the band to get over to Europe for the first time and also get some slots at decent festivals. Finally the word started to get out.
I absolutely cannot wait to see this band live. With a new album out possibly later this year there is a chance that they will come to Europe to promote it but dammit I'm overdue a trip to the States, I could kill several birds with one largish rock. I would do it, I'm that serious about how much I love this band. The shows look to be awesome and Darroh Sudderth is by all accounts a bit of a monkeyboy with a penchant for climbing speaker stacks and the like. Here he is in action in what is probably my favourite FTM song:
How this guy hasn't broken his neck yet is a mystery, I reckon the roof of the stage must be about 25 feet up so the equivalent of jumping out of a second floor window. He must be made of rubber
Earlier this year, en route to a gig, the trailer holding the band's equipment blew a tyre and rolled pulling the people carrier with the band in over with it. Fortunately there were no serious injuries but most of their equipment was trashed. Since then they've been doing a series of benefit shows at which some of the songs from the new album have been aired. It looks like they'll be a meld of the two styles of the band with the heavy thrash from the first album combined with the melodic sense of the second and third. There's some fairly fierce vid and pix from the accident here:
http://www.ftmband.com/crash/
And this is one of the newies just last weekend:
So, have I convinced you yet....?
Click to viewI've had some success via the IQ forum in the past by bigging up certain albums. Certainly I turned a few people on to the Decemberists last year and there have been some positive reactions to Shooter Jennings so I find it inexplicable that no-one ever commented on the many posts I made regarding this band. The honourable exception being the Ogster who has also acquired the discography - almost certainly from my hard drive - after hearing me play nothing else for about 6 weeks solid.
I feel this is an appropriate place to give a little love back to FTM in the hope that I can inspire someone else....anyone else.....to give them a go. They deserve it.
I checked them out when I was in my Post-Rock phase just after Xmas. I'd picked up the odd mention of them here and there and mistakenly had thought they fell in with the Post-Rockers. Oh, how wrong! I was having one of my blissful iPod Fridays at work and that day elected to plow straight through the FTM discography. "Eh?", I thought, almost immediately, "this ain't no instrumental guitar band trading on repeated riffage." Instead, what assaulted my ears was rough, kind of thrashy with alternate cookie monster vocals and almost off-key harmonies. Still, there was obviously something there. I noticed a keen but unusual sense of melody which definitely pulled me in and kept me listening.
What I was hearing was the band's debut album - The Carbon Copy Silver Lining - which was recorded way back in 2001. It's always very hard to put into words exactly what makes a particular band's sound attractive to you. I go for melody immediately and singability long term but several bands who have that in spades fail to engage me. This band jumped that hurdle and kept on running. I was probably about halfway through the album when I realised that I was definitely going to be listening to this a lot even though it was certainly outside of my usual listening-zone being, in parts, substantially heavier than I tended towards, albeit the thrashiness was interspersed with moments of quiet beauty. What made me think that this was a band to watch was the way the vocals were layered with atypical harmonies and phrasing that still sounded 'right'. That and they sounded like no other band I had ever heard.
So on I moved to the next album. Oh my! What a sea change, it was like going from your first car to a Ferrari. You loved that first one and it had its irritating quirks that you were used to but then you get in that Ferrari and you suddenly realise what driving's all about. OK, excuse the poor metaphor but I'm just trying to find a way to express the sheer step-up in quality between the two albums. inter.funda.stifle was independently released in 2004 as was Carbon Copy previously but somewhere along the line the band just got immensely better. The song writing is more focused; whereas there was a bit of kitchen sink attitude to CCSL, here the arrangements are much tighter and the thrashy aspects take more of a back seat. It's still heavy as fuck in places but targeted and used to counterpoint and contrast. The band added a full time keyboardist and believe me that makes a difference to the washes of sound and atmosphere.
Check out this song, A Seafarer's Knot originally from that album and while you're at it, take a look at Keyboardist Matt Langley's set-up, I have never seen anyone play like that before. Also, marvel as frontman Darroh Sudderth runs through the gamut of vocal techniques. I'm awed by his range.
So this Texan band continued to ply their trade amidst general apathy. As is usual for groups treading a slightly off-center line, radio stations gave them scant coverage and any ground gained was simply on word of mouth. Somewhere around this time, I believe, they considered chucking it all in but as with all fairy stories, there was an unlikely saviour waiting in the wings. Serje Tankian from System Of A Down had heard the album and caught a couple of their gigs. Impressed with both the music and the energetic and unpredictable stage shows he signed them up as the first band on his vanity label Serjical Strike which had major label support.
After putting out an EP, the band hit the studio again to record their first album with any serious backing. Feeling that they hadn't done justice to several of the songs on inter.funda. and aware of its limited availability, they chose to re-record them taking advantage of the upgraded facilities and an experienced producer. Really it's just like polishing a diamond, the basics were all there anyway. This new album - Fables From A Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True - was released in 2007 and allowed the band to get over to Europe for the first time and also get some slots at decent festivals. Finally the word started to get out.
I absolutely cannot wait to see this band live. With a new album out possibly later this year there is a chance that they will come to Europe to promote it but dammit I'm overdue a trip to the States, I could kill several birds with one largish rock. I would do it, I'm that serious about how much I love this band. The shows look to be awesome and Darroh Sudderth is by all accounts a bit of a monkeyboy with a penchant for climbing speaker stacks and the like. Here he is in action in what is probably my favourite FTM song:
How this guy hasn't broken his neck yet is a mystery, I reckon the roof of the stage must be about 25 feet up so the equivalent of jumping out of a second floor window. He must be made of rubber
Earlier this year, en route to a gig, the trailer holding the band's equipment blew a tyre and rolled pulling the people carrier with the band in over with it. Fortunately there were no serious injuries but most of their equipment was trashed. Since then they've been doing a series of benefit shows at which some of the songs from the new album have been aired. It looks like they'll be a meld of the two styles of the band with the heavy thrash from the first album combined with the melodic sense of the second and third. There's some fairly fierce vid and pix from the accident here:
http://www.ftmband.com/crash/
And this is one of the newies just last weekend:
So, have I convinced you yet....?