Front Porch Musings

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to see more random live music. I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to live shows. If I don’t like ya, I ain’t gonna see ya. My friend Chuck told me to “snap out of it” the other day and he made a really good point. When deciding on seeing a show, think of it as a party. So when he invited me to see the band Hockey last Friday night at Bottom of the Hill, I was less than enthused about seeing a band that I don’t like at all, but I love BOTH and I was sure the place would be packed with some cool people. Also, if you’ve never spent a night drinking at Bottom of the Hill you may not know that they serve the stiffest drinks in San Francisco. As a whiskey drinker, I spend a lot of time complaining about other bar’s light pours. Bottom of the Hill will never fall in that category. I’m telling you, you’ll have a little trouble getting your first one down.

What I didn’t know is that Hockey isn’t even for lame hipsters. I mean, the crowd chanted “Encore!” when the band finished their set…don’t ya’ll know that they are coming back out? Just clap, guys. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about Hockey. I’m here to talk about a new local act that call themselves Fake Your Own Death.

Fake Your Own Death played only their fourth show ever Friday night and I couldn’t have been more impressed. The music is a mix of Joy Division, Love and Rockets and The National with brief moments of Interpol thrown in. Now, if that doesn’t get you salivating I’m afraid I won’t be much more of a help to you. This three piece debuted songs from their forthcoming album to a sizable crowd Friday which was really great to see. I don’t think the band really fit well on the bill but most every one of the 50 or so people in attendance during their set really enjoyed the group. Their dark, brooding, almost “shoegaze” style was a perfect opener to the next two groups, whom featured more spastic personalities than a dance party in a meth lab.
My favorite track by FYOD sounds like it would fit really well on “Alligator” by The National. “Few Plus One” is a simple track, but one that packs a serious punch. And with lyrics like “Burning airplane/ which way to crash/ no message, no map/ you take the keys man, I’ll hide the stash…”, you can see quickly the comparison to The National, at least lyrically, is pretty spot on. Another sweet track is the rocker “Mouth to Speak” which features Brain’s favorite line “Your face, my fist.”

The group doesn’t have any merch out just yet as they are a brand new act, but Terry, their frontman was cool enough to throw me a sampler and I’ve been jamming the hell out of it. It has provided a nice little soundtrack to all this whacky weather we’ve been having. The group will be playing Thee Parkside on Feb 2nd and I’ll for sure be dragging some folks to come along with. I haven’t been this excited about a local group in quite some time. Get to know them.

Now, since Terry gave me a sampler of the tracks I’m going to post the mp3′s here for you guys to stream. Don’t forget to tell your friends…

“Few Plus One”

“Mouth to Speak”

“Dark Passenger”