LA band FIDLAR (Fuck It Dog Life’s A Risk) have only just released their second album Too today but in this short time the band have amassed enough stories to write an autobiography that could rival Keith Richards.
Following the release of their self-titled debut, the band become one of the most-talked about punk bands on the planet for their rioting stage demeanour, online presence and of course, crunching party tunes. Frontman Zac Carper has battled addiction and sobered up, hung upside down in venues around the world while the band have given unbelievably candid interviews and found soul-mates in Aussie slackers Dune Rats. The pages of this thing would just turn themselves, we’re telling you.
Too, however, brings it all back to the music with a collection of riotous, vivacious tracks that present themselves as party tunes but tackle topics of drug use, anxiety and loneliness. It makes for a listen that you can effortlessly lose your mind to or get lost digging through its lyrical weight.
Now with this album in our hands, we thought what better time to look back on the most ridiculously genius things they’ve done in their short but brilliant career and decide whether they are more ridiculous than genius or vice versa.
Announcing Splendour In The Grass By Getting Drunk On A Roof
You’ve gotta respect a band that puts a little care into their tour announcements. FIDLAR ditched the normal press release for their 2013 Australian tour and opted to let us all know by getting drunk on James Boag’s on an LA rooftop. Bass player Brandon Schwartzel does a damn good job and by about beer five he’s starting to look intoxicated. The camera also runs out of battery around that point and he has the commitment to source another one. “Fucken’ drunk,” he ends with. If you watched that vid and didn’t buy a ticket to FIDLAR in 2013, shame on you.
Their Twitter Game
If you take a quick glance at FIDLAR’s Twitter you’re not going to see anything signed off with By FIDLAR HQ. It’s pure, unfiltered genius and that means it doesn’t always make complete/any sense. To just cherry-pick a few moments of brilliance they have posted things like “If you have notice this notice you’ll notice this notice is not worth noticing”, “I ejaculated once” and “I still think it’s pretty retarded we called our second album Too.” You’ll also find out some of their favourite records like Vince Staples Summertime ‘06 which they think (and so do we) is one of the best releases of 2015.
#MatineeMondays
So if you’re not up on #MatineeMondays yet, you’re the ridiculous one here. For the ridic ones of you out there, this little Instagram series sees the band take on massive movies in just 15 second clips. They’ve taken on Finding Nemo, The Graduate and Forrest Gump and done a damn good job. As they only go for 15 seconds they probably can’t be considered for an Oscar but Meryl Streep would really have some competition if that should ever change.
Stage Antics
A punk riot is what you better expect if you’re heading along to a FIDLAR show as they proved last time they were in Australia. People argue punk ain’t dead but they’re aren’t many bands matching the Brits in the ‘70s - that is excluding FIDLAR of course. While at Oxford Art Factory in Sydney, Zac climbed up by a cable and performed a song while upside down held by the manager of the venue, as Channel [V] recounts.
The Nostalgic 40oz. On Repeat Video
We don’t want to even entertain the thought that parodying iconic videos from the nineties and naughties could be ridiculous so we’re just going to straight out call this one genius. FIDLAR have had some amazing videos but they really turned it to 11 on this one taking on Missy Elliot, Britney Spears and Eminem’s time-stamped videos to the soundtrack of this raucous punk track.
The Nick Offerman-Featuring Cocaine Video
This one is a perfect pairing because Nick Offerman also happens to be a ridiculous genius and FIDLAR somehow got him to star in their video for Cocaine. It’s good enough to get Ron Swanson himself in a video but in this particular one he alleviates himself in public, not once but about 12 times, on dogs, off roofs and in a car wash. And yes, you get to see his willy - or at least a prosthetic one. Also, apparently it was actually Offerman’s idea to pee on everything so we guess it was his genius or ridiculousness, not FIDLAR’s.
Their Dune Rats Friendship
Again, no brainer, this is genius. Dune Rats toured as FIDLAR’s support during their 2013 Australian tour and the two bands have struck up quite the bromance since. They are both about to embark on a massive tour of the US which, if you’ve ever looked into either of the band’s backstage antics, will be a massive disaster in the best way possible. FIDLAR describe Dunies as “the MOST stoked/excited/posi/bat-shit crazy people we have ever encountered,” which is a title that only the band themselves could also compete for.
Everyone Getting FIDLAR Tattoos
This isn’t something the band is doing but they’ve indirectly done it by building a cult fanbase so strong that people are willing to ink their name into their skin before even a second album. Those fans will probably be rejoicing this morning as they discover that Too is tattoo-worthy. It’s a serious commitment to get a tattoo after one album as fans of Operator Please’s first album would’ve discovered. They’re now trying to pretend to everyone that it’s an ironic thing.
Their Vine
Unfortunately FIDLAR haven’t uploaded a vine since 2013 but there’s still a huge back catalogue of fun and frivolity to scroll through at your leisure. The type of things you’re likely to see include the band sculling salsa and/or ice cold drinks, dry humping and karaoke to AWOLNATION. It was a short-lived Vine career but it was a beautiful one, kind of like Jay Z’s recent foray into Instagram. RIP FIDLAR’s Vine, thanks for the memories.
FIDLAR's Too is available now where all brilliantly bratty records are sold | streamed.
- Words by the interns' Sam Murphy for Cool Accidents
