The Fades Newest Single, “Off the Record” should be on everyone’s record player!
By Scott Pasch
The Fades describe themselves as “reminiscent of early Nirvana, elements of Faith No More and the snarl of Idles”. On their new single, “Off the Record”, I can most certainly hear the early Nirvana a la Bleach. It’s got the same sort of heavy buzzing distorted wall of guitar with the pre-dave grohl drums of Chad Channing. I totally get the feeling of listening to one of my favorite Nirvana songs: “Negative Creep”. As for Faith No More (One of the few bands where I own a vinyl copy of every record they’ve released), I get the hint of them through the “ghostly” backing vocals and patton-ish main vocals. I know that describing anyone as sounding like Patton is fraught with vagueness since his style is diverse and has changed from album to album and project to project. I’m going to have to admit ignorance to the Idles.
Is this grunge or is this punk rock? If you’re a purest of either, you’re in trouble but if you can appreciate a band melding the two styles and threading that needle, then you’re in for a rad time. The song actually reminds me a bit of a band we released on DCxPC Live: Year of the Fist. It fills the gutters between punk and grunge without being either.
I checked out their video to the song, and I was enjoying the 90ish black and white noir murder mystery movie, but then I had to rewind when I saw that the serial killer kept tapes of his deaths and in his tapes there were familiar names like: Brian Jones, Sam Cooke, Jimi Hendrix, Biggie Smalls, Jim Morrision, Bobby Fuller, and more! If I’m not mistaken all of these artists had some mystique around their demise.
Clocking in at the 2:30 mark, it hits right at the cusp of my preferred song length. It’s not that I can’t appreciate a longer song, it’s just that most songs should be less than 3 minutes, just like most guests should stay less than 3 days.
From what I can see they toured NY well over a decade ago, and judging from the video below of their live set, I’d love to see them return soon. I have to admit their sentiment on loving punk rock hits home with me, so even though this song wasn’t the one submitted, I feel a need to include it in this review. Enjoy!
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