New Mansions In Sound (Sub Pop)
by Anthony Carew
When you play a Fastbacks record, the sun shines. The air is sweeter. The day is brighter. With a comic book in their back pocket, and melted icecream trickled down onto their hands, the Fastbacks surge with Kiss-esque sugarpop rock'n'roll flavour, an infectious sense of forbidden fruit, and an X-chromosomal rawk attitude. And they certainly haven't tapered off on any of that velocity over their many years, as on their latest, New Mansions In Sound, the band still surge forward in that ever head-slinking thrust of damn-catchymaple-syrup-punk action.
555 in its two parts highlights the forward-at-all costs pace. 555 part one starts and stops before you can blink, before a buck-stops-here drum advertisement segues into 555 part two. Drummer (and once were Posie) Mike Musburger keeps the fuel burning by stepping up with limb-risking beats a plenty (wonder how he'd fare on Mr. Rockstars-don't-wear-tops-Terry Bozzio's 'Largest drum kit to tour Austrailia!')(!!), and Musburger was just a recent visitor to Australia as a soundman on the Presidents tour. And this is only the start of the Pacific Northwest cameos, as Jason Finn (yeah, the fat one) from the Presidents hops on the drums on No Information, and Ken Stringfellow of those aforementioned Posies contributes an all too unhealthy guitar on Is It Familiar? Paintings on the inside booklet (a very stylish double-posting digipack is the presentation) are contributed by the biggest man in Seattle, Tad, and some highly-anonymous gravel-throat warbler, initials EV and appearing with the kind permission of Wes C. Addle (hmmm), contributes backing vox on a cover of the Who's Girl's Eyes.
Ultra-celeb grunge drop-ins aside, it is the Fastbacks unchallengingly lovable dodgem-car cock-pop that keeps you coming back for more. The Muffs have always seemed to hold hands in a faute de mieux way with the Fastbacks to these ears, but on Weather: Perfectly Clear it reverses, to almost lawyerishly close proportions. I couldn't put my finger on where that riff screamed from, Right In the Eye on methadone, or a church-foyer End It All? It sounds so goddamn familiar, but is it?
And that is a trait the Fastbacks have seemingly perfected, every track it's... 'haven't I heard this before?' Yeah baby, that goddamn infectious. New Mansions In Sound is geekgirl chorus-dripping, guitar-loving, Saturday morning slip 'n' slide, high-volt poppage. Slathered in mighty hooks aplenty, and with all the dimple-cheeked, button-nosed harmonies you could ask for, this is more than just another two chix fronting two guys pop-by-numbers outing. A necessary reaffirmation of low-thought pop executed with high-thought, from a band that was at the forefront of the ideal. Ahh, luv doze Fastbax.
(Note: Tad Doyle was not the artist responsible for the album art, it was Tad Hutchison of the YFF who drew 'em - DSharpie)
by Clare Murphy
Before Nirvana, before Presidents of the United States of America, before Soundgarden, there was Fastbacks. Virtually unknown outside its home town, Fastbacks is the original Seattle grunge band. Chances are it was around long before the notion of grunge came to make headlines.
Fastbacks has been pumping out its version of cool, cult punk since forming in 1979. Its biggest gig has been supporting Pearl Jam during concerts in North America. Before that it was used to crowds of 150, maximum.
Its latest album, New Mansions In Sound is ripper- plenty of energy, hard guitar riffs and gutsy vocals.
Fortune's Misery immediately introduces the listener to the band's special recipe of punk-pop which, for the next 13 songs, barely lets up.
Fun, high-powered and oh so cool.
