Number 35: FIDLAR by FIDLAR
Release: January 22nd, 2013
Genre: Skate Punk
Favorite Tracks: No Waves, Cocaine, Cheap Beer
Where I heard it:
After graduating high school in 2014 and briefly exploring college courses, I officially joined the work force as a full-time gig late that year. During my free time off work, favorite activities of mine included multiple bong rips and playing video games in my living room for hours on end. Like many others upon its release, I was fully invested into Grand Theft Auto V and its remarkably immersive world that encouraged exploration. Sometimes I would just get in my souped-up sports car and drive across the highways as fast as I could, blasting some of the game's available radio stations. The Grand Theft Auto series, among more glaring controversies, had earned a reputation for its expansive soundtrack that offers a wide array of genres to listen to like pop, soul, punk, rap, and even Latino music. Featured in Grand Theft Auto V on Vinewood Boulevard Radio was a song called Cocaine by FIDLAR, a station I wouldn't listen to often, but would tune in now and again to see if Cocaine was playing. I particularly enjoyed the intensity of the song, which coaligned with my increased intake of aggressive music around 2015. I took a look into FIDLAR around this time, and to this day their eponymous debut album is a staple while driving fast down the highway in my own car, much more safely than in GTA5, mind you.
Cocaine and shitty pills
Get head in a broken car
With the windows up and the lights turned off
There's nothing wrong with living like this
All my friends are pieces of shit
Busted chin and a bloody nose
And I'm covered in dirt from my head to my toes
~ Stoked and Broke
What to expect:
Although their popularity has only seen modest heights, FIDLAR helped redefine the sound of punk music in the modern era during the last decade. It seemed only natural, as brothers Max on drums and Elvis on guitar and vocals were the children of Greg Kuehn, who played in the pioneering 80's punk band T.S.O.L. on keyboards. There exist several comparisons between T.S.O.L. and FIDLAR, beginning with the band names themselves. FIDLAR is a popular acronym used in skate culture, which stands for Fuck It Dude, Life's A Risk. It's a testament to the inherent risk and danger of the sport, but nevertheless persisting toward improvement. Their debut album strictly adheres to these same characteristics, embracing the violent, drug-fueled tendencies of punk rock in pursuit of stardom. The majority of the lyrics revolve around the band's personal substance consumption and addiction, which in turn leads to their penniless and nomadic lifestyle of couch surfing and car camping. FIDLAR somehow manages to glamorize the excessive abuse of various drugs in practice, while simultaneously condemning them for the consequences they cause in life. It's a fascinating juxtaposition that reveals a bit of the humanity behind such profane and sleazy behavior. The music itself is mostly about as jarring and in-your-face as you'd imagine from a band like FIDLAR, driven off of heavy riffs like Cheap Beer and 5 to 9 that utilize power chords to maximize the sheer force of their volume. In typical punk fashion, FIDLAR is produced with incredibly low fidelity that shows most blatantly through the gritty vocal filters and squealing feedback that bookmarks transitions between tracks. The execution of all these qualities induce a level of stimulation that teeters on the border of satisfaction and unenjoyment. However, nobody can sustain that amount of excitement for too long. FIDLAR also includes slower, more whimsical tunes like Max Can't Surf and Gimme Something that cleanse the palate and offer some respite from the norm. For a punk album, it's pleasing to see range in their playing that isn't all gas, all the time. FIDLAR takes a nostalgic trip down memory lane in the projects, where the memories aren't always the most positive, but focused on the good times had regardless.
Skating so hard I can't even breathe
But I gotta bomb this hill
And I gotta shoot this line
Gotta get my King for a dollar ninety-nine
And I'm so fuckin' cheap
And I'm so fuckin' broke
And I don't have a job and I don't have a phone
Don't have a life and I'm already stoned
~ Wake Bake Skate
Why it's my favorite:
When I first heard FIDLAR in 2015, I felt a strong connection to the skate culture of bombing hills with your friends night in and night out. After living a life well-lived since then, I've grown to associate myself unfortunately closer with its message of drug use. While I can't profess I've done some of the substances alluded to in FIDLAR, I do understand what it's like to be so high out of your mind that you start to wonder how you got to that point in the first place. It isn't necessarily a matter of good or bad; it just is what it is. FIDLAR is unapologetically frank and candid about the band's abusive relationship with drugs and alcohol from the perspective of young twenty-somethings, which I feel is an issue many in this demographic can relate to. These songs are snapshots of moments in time that may not make us proud, but we may look back on with fondness after kicking the habit. It's been a point for me to lessen my usage eventually, but is consistently put on the back burner. Much in this same respect, FIDLAR consciously acknowledges that what they do is probably self-detrimental in the long run, but is not hopeless in seeing the light beyond the tunnel of addiction. In fact, later releases from FIDLAR focus on the recovery aspect of prolong substance abuse, offering a more retrospective look into what once was. In my mind, if there's hope for these guys, then there's hope for me someday. FIDLAR is simply a microcosm of those who live among us with the same problems just trying to have a good time, and I respect the hell out of it for that.
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