“I drink cheap beer, so what? Fuck You!” With this anthemic punk refrain FIDLAR’s eponymous debut kicks off. What follows are 38 glorious minutes of middle-fingered attitude and irresistible debauchery.
Like their three-chord precursors, FIDLAR (drawn from the skater adage ‘Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Risk’) strips rock down to its fuzzed-out basics and, with a fuck-you sensibility, celebrates what matters most: getting wasted, getting laid, rocking out, and having fun.
The delinquent authenticity of this rowdy album is heightened by the rough garage production. Adorning this mix are fuzzed surf guitar licks that channel Germs, East Bay Ray, and Dick Dale, imbuing the record with a SoCal beach vibe to complement the wastoid ethos.
Rather than the social vitriol of early punk, or the poseur nihilism of the 90s revival, FIDLAR channels a drunken stoner version of The Beach Boys via The Ramones to enshrine their misspent Californian youth.
“Stoked And Broke” and “Cheap Beer” are raucous sing-alongs that defiantly celebrate the shit-kicking punk lifestyle in a manner that evokes Black Flag classics “TV Party” and “Six Pack” with lines like: “There’s nothing wrong with living like this, all my friends are pieces of shit.”
The infectious grab-a-beer-and-jump intensity of the record is perfectly paced.
Poppier moments, like the easy-listening bounce of “No Waves” (“I feel, feel like I can’t get drunk no more / ‘cause I’m on the floor”), help to temper the onslaught of the album without sacrificing waster principles.
FIDLAR, like Black Flag before them, have created a golden anti-parent record, one that shamelessly celebrates drink, drugs, and burning out. Never has trashy hedonism sounded so damn fun.
