The Fauves - Future Spa

MINE

This puts me back at that time - the mid 90's when I gave up my flourishing(!) accounting career for radio. And there were a whole bunch of Aussie bands I came to know and love then.

You see I went to radio school the year this album came out.  And while I've not really listened to the album as a whole before, the singles Dogs Are the Best People and  Self Abuser certainly featured on the playlists we put together while programming our own shows (a big shout-out to AFTRS radio class of '96).

I will admit to being more fond of Custard and Spiderbait at the time, but these guys rock too.  I did originally say to YourZ that I generally preferred indie-rock bands like this who had girl singers (like the Breeders) but on reflection, there were a bunch of floppy-haired boys fronting the bands I bounced up and down to at many Big Days Out in the 90s.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (relive that misspent youth)

YOURZ

The fuckin' Fauves are on man, the fuckin' Fauves, man, the fuckin' Fauves...  This was the greeting I received outside a little venue in a small town capital many years ago.  My friend, who shall remain nameless to protect his burgeoning career as an upright citizen, was stoned to the eyeballs and half drunk as well.  Mind you, he was also playing drums in the support.  The night turned out to be a spectacular one of rock and roll high jinx and over-indulgence.

It was around the time of Future Spa too.  I remember listening to this album many times, astounded as to why The Fauves didn't become the next best thing around the world.  This is the major problem with being a musician in Australian (and New Zealand for that matter) - the isolation.  Although these days the interwebs has made things a helluva lot easier, thanks to sites like MySpace (now there is a sentence I thought I'd never write).

Still clever, articulate and rocking after all these years, Future Spa, which includes two of my favourite song titles - Understanding Kyuss and Don't Get Death Threats Anymore - is definitely going to be my first Forgotten Gem for March,

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information, samples of songs and to buy their music: http://www.thefauves.com/

In our collection we also have Lazy Highways