Album, Single and EP Reviews


 

 

  In the Summer Time EP by Fe Fi Fo Fums


In the Summer Time EP cover art

Artist: Fe Fi Fo Fums
Title: In the Summer Time EP
Catalogue Number: Boom Boom Castle Party Records
Review Format: EP
Release Year: 2007



Keeping it angry are Seattle band the Fe Fi Fo Fums with 4 tracks of lo-fi, grungy punk rock. Recorded with scant regard for sound quality, this was like a trip back in time for the Bluesbunny as the raw energy energised us. The natural home for these songs is indeed vinyl.

Giving us grief first is "In the Summertime". This is pure early period punk just like the Ramones. It isn't clever and it isn't smart but it works. God, it really works! Crank it up to the max and make it fast as there is an angry bit of guitar that you will want to share with the neighbours. It is not an epic either being gone in well under 2 minutes.

Then "Don't Bite Me Baby, I've Got the Boom Boom in my Blood" leaps right out at you. It screeches and screams at you like the sound you get from a cheap sound system in a basement club after midnight. Handclaps give it a deranged "sing along with this, bitches!" quality and this is one song just looking for a fight.

"I Can't Help Myself" turns this band into an anguished teen band. Well it would if they didn't sound like they wanted to stab you. Emotions out of control. Just the very stuff that inspired all those garage bands back in the sixties. Only this bunch of reprobates really sound like they mean it. In the distance, you hear the sound of sirens…

"I Just Wanna Have Some Fun!" takes us time travelling to CBGB's. You really miss this kind of music. Music nowadays tends towards the polished but there is nothing shiny and sanitised about the Fe Fi Fo Fums. This is a song for a Friday night. Chaotic without a doubt but this is music with spirit.

Glorious stuff. Take all those SACDs of Bob Dylan's back catalogue and flush them down the toilet. Real music comes on vinyl from hard working bands that can barely afford drugs let alone extended studio time. The Fe Fo Fi Fums, as you might have guessed, have the Bluesbunny stamp of approval.


www.myspace.com/fefifofums
Reviewer:
Review Date: March 23 2008