When I imagine what a fuck buttons is, I picture the experiment in which scientists rigged a rats’ brain to emit doses of serotonin every time it hit a button. As to be expected, the rat continuously hit the bar — over-and-over again — foregoing all food and drink for a quick-fix brain orgasm endlessly until it died. So, what would a band like this sound like? Probably somewhere between Abba and Junior Senior.
But UK’s Fuck Buttons (Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung) do not sound like that, at all. Not anywhere near it. It’s more likely someone pointed out to Benjamin or Andrew that they missed a button on their shirt, and his straight-faced reply was “fuck buttons”. This disregard, or at least challenge, of the “norm” sounds closer to what could be FB’s sonic approach.
Their sound is one of static, overdrive guitar layers, and distorted vocals out of which gasps of harmony and rhythm emerge. In 2008, F.B. unleashed Street Horrrsing to near universal critical acclaim — an unlikely feat for a six track, 49-minute endurance test whose first discernible beat begins after the 30-min mark. The coarse fuzz was dotted with keyboard peaks, tribal polyrhythms, indecipherable chanting and contorted screams — no one was sure what they were getting at, but were enjoying the trip.
The first discernible beat on their Sophomore album, Tarot Sport, enters at about 1:30 on the first track “Surf Solar”, followed quickly by a club worthy cut-up female vocal sample. So… the Fuck Buttons can throw a change-up as well as a screwball. It’s a pleasant surprise though; an apt introduction to the more accessible, more immediately pleasurable follow-up LP.
The highlight is the LP’s centerpiece, “Olympians”, whose gradiosity should soundtrack a slow-motion marathon montage. Clocking in at nearly 11 min, the track itself is a rewarding endurance challenge. Closing the album is equally epic “Flight of the Feathered Serpent” with drum machines, keyboards, and Zinner-like guitar squall creating what a mounts to an exultant sonic victory lap after an intriguing two year 15-track output.
While the first album felt more organically distorted, the Fuck Buttons’ more electronic approach this time around still reaches for a familiar goal; transcendence through pattern and repetition. Tarot Sport will be a different experience if you loved with their debut, but there is nothing you can really get upset about here. The base materials are still there — distortion, rhythm, synth – it’s just in a more structured form.
Imagine taking a weighty, imposing piece of abstract art and dividing into a more-manageable triptych. Arguably, the new form could make for an equally enjoyably aesthetic experience (perhaps even moreso), but those enamored with the original may still cry foul.
We Can Tell How Good A Band Is Without Listening to Them! On Tuesday we blindly picked a band to unfairly judge based on things aside from their music. Today we look at photos of the band but still refuse to listen to their music.
The Band We Are Blindly Judging This Week:
The Library is on Fire (now with photos!!!)
Araceli: They don’t look like complete dirt bags, but I’m only stating that because I’ve become immune to that look: dark rimmed glasses (got a pair), fingerless gloves (got those too), “messy hair” (yup), sedated-eyes, with a shimmer of malnourishment (check). All of these characteristics are equivalent to a typical hipster, my counterparts. Though on behalf of of the Library Is On Fire, I’d like to add that anyone under 40 who is an “artist” doesn’t have any other option but to wear rags and look greasy––doing otherwise takes too much effort, and we all know that our generation lacks motivation, but I digress. Rating:6
Lille: As a collective the band looks a little bit like a team of janitors. Maybe that’s why they’re called Library on Fire. Maybe they were bibliotheque custodians who set books on fire. And then they have to expose their photos in weird manners, or wear white paint to camouflage themselves and not get caught by the authorities. For some reason these photos REALLY REALLY REALLY make me want to listen to their music. Not. Rating: 3
Brian: Okay, well. The first pic they look inoffensive enough (wait… is the guy on the left wearing a janitor jumpsuit?). But THEN the second pic, egads, there are so many cliches going on. I see two questionable hats, a suitcoat-over-blazer, wayfarers, skinny jeans, and Pumas. Not to mention, the photo’s colors are inverted. Here, let me un-invert the image…
not so cool anymore right? Hipstah Pleeez. My Rating: 4
On Friday, we will actually listen to the music and give ‘em a fair shot.
It occurs to everyone that listens to music… It happens when you’re scanning the paper to see who’s playing next weekend or when co-workers give you their demo CDs…
You Can Tell How Good A Band Is Without Listening to Them! But is this true? We are here to test it out. Araceli has chosen a band that all three of us have not heard of. We will proceed to rate the band (1-10) based on their name alone. We’ll get a look at the band, and then eventually actually judge their music.
The Band We Will Be Blindly Judging This Week:
The Library is on Fire
Lille: Where is this band from? It sounds like a name picked out of a hat, like it’s forced. That, or someone has a hatred of books and a love of fire. Since I love books AND fire, that’s one out of two. It sounds like this could be a teenage emo band that will be forgotten like my favorite band of 2005 (the Futureheads, anyone?). Rating : er, 3
Araceli: I have no idea where this band is from, a friend from Chicago suggested them, so perhaps Brian will have some inkling on these folks. Obviously this band is trying to ride the Arcade Fire wave. In order to have a supposed “cool” demeanor, they intentionally chose to burn a sacred establishment. Why can’t they burn a liquor store? 7Eleven on Fire? Now that sounds promising. I think they’re trying to build on the lit crowd and cater to the bookish types of Brooklyn. I find this marketing scheme repulsive.
Perhaps they appreciated Kings of Leon’s “Sex On Fire” phrasing, as to say “damn, that girl is hot, she’s on fire!” Again, fronting on the intellectual realm: that library is smokin’! my rating: 4
Brian: While I’m relieved the band had the restraint not to add an exclamation to the end of their name, I’m with Araceli on this one — conjuring images of our temples of learning set afire is a pretty high precedent for rock music. Does their sound topple the towers of rockness that we’ve built up in the last 75 years? Do they deconstruct what it is to be a rock band? Probably not. I believe the last popular anarchic band was actually Chumbawumba. My Rating: 4
On Thursday, we will look at photos and update our increasingly superficial opinions of mystery band, The Library is on Fire.
Dean Wareham read from his novel Black Postcards––as did other music aficionados /writers Dan Kennedy (McSweeney’s contributor, Rock On: An Office Power Ballad and Loser Goes First) and the extraordinarily charming Rob Harvilla (Village Voice music editor)––I was quite taken by the excerpt he read, in which he did so in a softly manner. Something about playing a gig in Spain and being awestruck by a dark-haired, big-breasted, olive-skinned beauty in the front row, who he ended up having an amazing night with, and then sort of felt guilty thinking about his son back home.
Sure he idealized the entire evening affair, but he did so quite brilliantly. So much in fact that I wondered why I had never heard of his bands–– Galaxie 500, Luna, and Dean & Britta.
Presumably since some of these former outfits bloomed in the early 90s, while I was just barely crawling out of my New Kids On The Block phase. I mostly blame my older siblings for not getting me into Luna, as their sole responsibility was to expose my eager ears to new music as they did with the Ocean Blue and the Sundays.
I suppose since Rolling Stone even penned Luna as “the best band you’ve never heard of”, I don’t feel entirely bad. I will just slowly get my feet wet with Wareham’s words and music through this read. So far, so good.
Bembang! is a music blog written by a trio of music nerds who live in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.
