Fat History Month - Fucking Despair

When the Boss (Phil, not Bruce Springsteen) placed this record into my hands and said "...review this..." it gave me the same feelings you might get when you leave your girlfriend working late with Ryan Giggs/John Terry...something akin to fear and trepidation. The sleeve has a badly drawn picture of a cock inside a pear. I had no inclination as to what I was letting myself in for. Drone style wankery? Ambient soundscapes served up with a far fetched back story relating to bees with the heads of hamsters, and a yachting accident? Thankfully none of these occurred. Fat History Month are a million miles away from such " artists". They instead peddle a rather more indie rock sound. I guess you could liken them to Three Mile Pilot or mebbe Black Heart Procession. I reckon this album is pretty good. It has some genuinely rocking moments. The production on this record is pretty raw, and this is a good thing. It has delicate moments with a touch of reverb, then it may explode into full on distorted rockery. Some songs have nothing going on lyric wise, then other songs have an oblique lyric running through them. They do sound raw and spikey, then other times they sound delicate and have a touch of post-punk about them. Out of all the tracks on this effort I would have to say that my favourite is the fantastically titled "You Can Pick Your Nose, You Can Pick Your Friend's Nose, But You Cant Escape Your Horrible Family". This track is almost the perfect example of where these Bostonians are musically. They have a slight tongue in cheek feel underlining most of their songs, which sets it aside from more po-faced indie fare. I reckon this album will delight indie rockers who like a bit of subversion with their music. A really sterling record that is funny and has an unhealthy cat in a harness obsession.