Let’s be honest here – Fat History Month is a complicated band to talk about. While this guitar and drum duo might seem simple to summarize, link the moment you first hear the echoing, viagra buzzing guitar aligned with the metaphorical mind-melting lyrics of Sean History Month, you are simply sold. The magic produced by these musicians has caused many to revel and call them “my best/favorite band in Boston!” With six and a half long years of existence, countless basement shows, and a blossoming recognition within the national DIY scene, it’s hard to disagree.
Their latest release, Bad History Month, was released April 1st and comes the way of Sophomore Lounge and Exploding In Sound Records. They recorded the basic line tracks in 2 weeks during the first month of 2012 in the Sex Dungeon studio of Philadelphia. The Fat Boys returned to Boston and put their noses to the digital grindstone, a yearlong process of mixing and overdubbing to a point of acceptable perfection. It was probably hell, but it was worth it.
“We finished the album the first week of 2013. It was a drawn out process,” comments drummer Mark History Month, who did most of the mixing on the album, “It was a project in our own hands, we spent countless hours trying to mix and fuck with [the songs]. It was a major learning experience for me to use the computer programs and make things sound a certain way.”
Subtleties have always been Fat History Month’s forte, but this record seems quite bold. Gone are the long drawn out epics like ‘Free As A Cat’ and even the short, powerful anthems like ‘Old Lady Smokers’ that you heard on Fucking Despair. Instead we find incredible recording quality alongside songs that contain an even distribution of intrigue and mysticism. There is something great within every track of this album.
“I like themes,” claims guitarist and singer Sean History Month, “Once you notice something, you keep on picking up on it. These stupid, similar titles…it makes it easier to get the ideas.”
These themes overlap and tie the album together with ease. You constantly hear the phrase “it was easy” in ‘Bald History Month’ and ‘(bad future)’. You meet a Cowboy that encounters a horse, snails, and then finally a suicidal sofa in ‘Bad History Month’ and ‘Couch Killed The Cowboy’. There are even simultaneous blowjob and cancer references in ‘The Future’. Like some sort of fucked up Harry Potter novel, you are enthralled to experience song after song like you would enjoy chapter after chapter. ‘It Is What It Isn’t’ champions the album as perhaps the best track, a long ‘Nature’-esque song of Fat History Month’s unique sound leading into the catchiest lyrics of the album, “I only know what I don’t want to be/I stick around ‘cause I’m waiting to see what happens/But nothing happens”
Motifs of dark and light, heaven and hell, good and bad are heard all across this album. Struggling through both, Fat History Month captures ‘perfection’ within the realms of the audio quality, the visual production, and of course, the emotional warmth. If you can listen to this album and feel no urge to cry, there are parts of you missing.
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