and here's what jezebel music in williamsburg had to say about the show............
JEZEBEL MUSIC.COM
Maybe it was frontman Mario’s Buddy Holly glasses or the adorable
Carl Perkins-esque guitar. It could have also been the 4-on-the-floor
backbeats and catchy-as-hell chord progressions. Whatever it was,
something about Finding Fiction recalls the glory days of pop.
Last week at Death By Audio, these crusaders of the alt-pop anthem
performed selections from their new album to the glee of a
healthy-sized Wednesday night crowd. It was refreshing to hear some
straightforward, pretense-free rock for once, without any additional
flamboyance. The kitschiest it got was lead guitarist Josh Coleman’s
bare feet, which, he wryly announced, would help him correctly push the
pedals. Oh, and the fact that I was casually invited to join their
pre-show frisbee game. But frivolity aside, their sound is tight,
cleverly structured, and easy on the ears.
Mario Santana leads the pack with understated, cursory vocals that recall Stephen Malkmus sans Jicks. Despite his veritable presence in each song, the real star wound up being the lead guitar, whose finger-tapped, wandering melodies provided a much more fleshed-out sonic layer. The band combines elements of garage and math rock to arrive at that quintessential moment (circa 2001?) when punk rock realized it had emotions. Listening to Finding Fiction is like traveling back to a time when bands like Mock Orange and Counterfit ruled the day. It’s certainly a trip down memory lane, and it’s nice for once to be nostalgic about something you have actually experienced.
Mario Santana leads the pack with understated, cursory vocals that recall Stephen Malkmus sans Jicks. Despite his veritable presence in each song, the real star wound up being the lead guitar, whose finger-tapped, wandering melodies provided a much more fleshed-out sonic layer. The band combines elements of garage and math rock to arrive at that quintessential moment (circa 2001?) when punk rock realized it had emotions. Listening to Finding Fiction is like traveling back to a time when bands like Mock Orange and Counterfit ruled the day. It’s certainly a trip down memory lane, and it’s nice for once to be nostalgic about something you have actually experienced.
But Coleman had me wondering: what would happen if indie rock were
to lose reverb and distortion? If these guys were left to their
barebones devices, their pure pop sound, would it be so bad? The worst
that would happen would be mayhem on the dance floor. It seems to me
that they have yet to embrace and own their most valuable assets – once
they do, I don’t think we’ll be able to get them out of our heads.
That being said, Finding Fiction is a band to watch grow and change
in the coming months. Catch them on tour, in which they are pretty much
perpetually engaged, until arriving home at CMJ this fall.
You can stream songs from Finding Fiction’s recently released Idaho by the Sea from their MySpace.
by Drew Citron