Fang Island Press Photo

Fang Island is a quintet from Brooklyn…

Do I really need to say anything more? Should I just end the preview here? I say this because everyone loves a band from Brooklyn, regardless of whether they’re any good or not. New York. The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. Would it be a mistake to call it the epicenter of culture? Undoubtedly New York City is the highest point of human achievement. You want to move there because you think you can dance pretty well. Your mom and dad paid your way through art school and now you’re ready to enter the starving artist phase of your life. Your lovers always said you had an outrageous sense of fashion and you’ve been building up courage to do something spontaneous. “If I move to the BIG(ger) city, something BIG will  happen….right?” Somehow lose your metropolitan hopes and dreams amidst the skinny jean dry hump fest orgy that surrounds indie rock bands in the blogosphere.  I dare you. Better yet, I double dog dare you gentle reader.  And before you could say yes, it already happened.

Fang Island want to tell you that they sound like “everyone high-fiving everyone.” And in response to that I ask if they’ve ever been sober enough to listen to their own band before? I’ve never had a high-five that sounded this strange. This band is a “Garth” (yes, Garth from “Wayne’s World”) band. If Garth cloned himself five times, he’d write songs like this. If you look like Garth, chances are you’ll like this band. If you are a thirtysomething white guy from suburban Chicago that has a music show on public access, you’ll automatically like this band. It’s hard to explain but I’ll try.

The Brooklyn quintet borrows the “Yeah, we’re totally dudes rocking” melodies and attitude from Andrew W.K. This is going to sound crazy, but if you played select parts of certain Fang Island songs on an acoustic guitar and in a slower fashion they’d sound like Paul Simon. On top of this bizarre amalgam throw in the weird “We’re going to group chant now” vocals that all the kids are slurping up these days and you have a 23% understanding of Fang Island.  These guys also like Mega Man a lot because it sometimes sounds like they ripped off the soundtrack to our famed video game super hero. I’d tell you what Mega Man level Fang Island’s riffage brings to mind, but do you have any idea how many Mega Man games there are these days? That would take months of painstaking yet somewhat enjoyable research. The weather is changing for the better as of late. I don’t plan to be stuck inside all day.

Fang Island’s self-titled album has some rather interesting moments. “Dreamer of Dreams” sounds like the Fucking Champs, if the Fucking Champs wrote songs for ridiculously upbeat morning people. “Careful Crossers” is the sonic equivalent of a silly string fight between middle school dance team members.  You think I’m kidding but you’d hard pressed to find rock music that is this undeniably upbeat. Especially considering the sparseness of the vocals and when those are in the forefront, it’s sunshine all over the place. The Care Bears would have Fang Island in their iPod. “Life Coach” is great song title and it’s one of stronger songs on the album. The best song on the album is “Davey Crockett.” The track captures Fang Island at its most triumphant and exuberant without seeming too preposterous. Besides, how many songs are dedicated to this American folk hero?

Why am I telling you all this? It isn’t for my health; Fang Island will be at Neumos on Thursday April 29th with Caspian and Red Sparrowes. Admittedly, I’m much more into the epic heaviness of Caspian and I’ve been a fan of instrumental, atmospheric storytelling of Red Sparowes since their debut album in 2005. Fang Island is a bit much to listen to in the confines of your bedroom, but I’d bet your last dollar that they will be extremely entertaining live. Especially if they’re constantly high-fiving each other while churning out all those dual harmonized guitar lines like their press kit promises. We’re only a few months into 2010 and this show is my pick for the “Concert Most Likely to Make Patrons Space Out and Use Instrumental Music as a Background Soundtrack To Bringing A Stranger Home From the Bar” award. I’ll see you there.