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FIDLAR

Noisey

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You can't take FIDLAR at their word. Like Nathan Williams from Wavves, this LA quartet champions a slacker lifestyle with the fervor of religious zealots; "Wake! Bake! Skate!" howls frontman Zac Carper on the 99-second opening track from their 2011 EP DIYDUI, before proclaiming himself phoneless, jobless, without a life, and perpetually stoned. Like a bluesman chasing away his woes by airing them in a song, FIDLAR turn their listlessness into creative fuel. Carper and his bandmates may in fact be incorrigible do-nothings, but they've got something to show for it: an ever-growing catalog of readymade garage-punk classics that draw omnivorously on a half century of bad-ass pop, from Phil Spector to Nirvana to the late, great Jay Reatard.

The members of FIDLAR were seemingly destined from birth to play in a band whose name stands for "Fuck it dog, life's a risk." Elvis and Max—guitarist-vocalist and drummer, respectively—are the sons of Greg Kuehn, a 20-year vet of the gothy L.A. punk band T.S.O.L., while Zac's dad, John "JC" Carper, crafts custom surfboards for the pros from his home base in Oahu. Along with Brandon Schwartzel (of Rooney fame) on bass, the Kuehns and Carper came together in 2009, and before long, the four members were cohabitating in a pad on Figueroa Street, the former HQ of platinum-selling alt-metal crew Trapt. FIDLAR's ambitions were more modest, at least at first: Rehearse and record on site, churn out handcrafted merch and throw insane house parties.

Pilgrimages to SXSW and CMJ followed, as well as the release of DIYDUI (on the tastemaking White Iris label) and a hilarious "Wake Bake Skate" video featuring (what else?) the grim reaper skateboarding through a war-torn Middle Eastern desert. At this point, no one could accuse FIDLAR of real-life aimlessness, but they remain terminally, blissfully lazy in the slacker utopia of their music.

You should definitely watch part 2 right now.

3 months ago

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