The band had large inflatable letters spelling TFB, and broke out the wacky inflatable waving arm tube men as well. Their presence was great, and though Brian always says “uncomfortable”, they looked pretty comfortable to me.
I’ve called em indie pop and I’ve called em emo and folk, but essentially they are just a rock band with a lead singer who taps into a sense of a dream which has become a part of American youth at least since the 1990s, maybe since the late 1960s, of a dream, both personally and politically diminished
Six of these artists are rockers. The Front Bottoms, Cerebral Ballzy and White Lung are relatively (WL dates from 2006) young bands, Wussy has been around since 2001, when Ian was, ahem, a spritely 56 year old. David Gray is a singer songwriter (I mean essentially, right?). So, yeah, for one week only rock makes a comeback.
Fucked My Way to The Top – Lana Del Rey – There is the famous story where Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make a movie where a huge ship is discovered with everyone on board dead –don’t know how, don’t know why, no marks nothing. He didn’t make the movie because whatever the solution was, it had to be a disappointment. Except for the names and a few of the places, the exact same thing could be said about this song: it couldn’t live up to its title and it doesn’t come close – B+
This, along with the (sold out) Wonder Years are the two big shows, the coming out pary for the bands who have been bubbling under the radar (except here, where Mary has written about them constantly) throughout the 2010s and are not awaiting their turn.
“”You know what I think’s really sad? I know how really sad you are,” is the opening line. This is quite a way to start anything; it’s a harsh and sharp song, and seeing Bryan Sella sing it is a different experience than just listening to the studio version. “
The Front Bottoms deep feel acoustic folkie with wordy wordy heart wrenching words that spill out like Tourettes of the heart first came to Mary Magpie’s attention and she passed it along to me, but they were in the process of upping onto a national level
“As if all the emotion and gorgeous lyricism wasn’t enough, then comes a bit of humor. “This is for the lake that me and my friends swim in, naked and dumb on a drunken night and it should’ve felt good but I can hear the Jaws theme song on repeat in the back of my mind.””
The extended guitar intro is excellent, the groove points directly backwards to Young Americans even as it seems to jumpstart itself into a world of cocain addiction, fascist dream and insanity, and, hey, I am happy to hear it twice – A
