At a time when anyone from Ridgewood is almost guaranteed to get forkcasted the second he plugs into a fuzz pedal, it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the town’s truly luminary output from, well…a bunch of slightly lazier artists who figure that if they imitate a certain sound, and make sure that everyone knows they practice in their parents’ basement, they will probably be able to catch the wave. Fortunately, the reality of the situation is usually somewhere in between. My personal take on the Ridgewood craze is that it must feel pretty damn amazing to be living in a place where you and all the kids you used to sneak cigarettes with behind the 711 after school have a good shot at getting recognized for what you work hard at. So while I have never seen the place for myself, I imagine that just having that kind of excitement in the air should be conducive to making good music. After all, if you’re sticking to bare-bones verse-chorus rock n’ roll songs, the amount of true-blue euphoria you are able to transmit to your listeners is often precisely what will make or break your jam.
Frat Dad, the latest addition to the Underwater Peoples roster, form part of this “second wave” of Ridgewood garage bands following the “first wave” of slightly older (read: mid-20s) artists like Vivian Girls, Real Estate, and Titus Andronicus. Not surprisingly, anecdotes about coming of age in the suburbs abound: “Greg the Nerd,” Side One of their new seven inch, surf rocks its way through the embarrassing life stories of a nerdy little fellow–presumably a friend–as he travels from “elementary school” to “middle school” to “hobby school.” The band’s press release (reproduced above) takes the form of a letter from one Brendon Mitchells to his 4th Grade teacher about why his brother is his hero (“Because he is [in] a band!”), accompanied by a group of equally “adorable” illustrations (below). Are Frat Dad pushing the envelope a little bit with the Never Never Land vibe, moving from college rock about high school (the older Ridgewood generation) to high school rock about elementary and kindergarten? Perhaps. But is the energy still there? Oh yeah. And I think we can hear it from the opening raspberry:
Frat Dad, “Greg the Nerd” (Frat Dad 7″, Underwater Peoples)
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Brendon Mitchells, Disco Stu.
Brendon Mitchells, Flame Shirt.
Brendon Mitchells, Folk.
Tags: Frat Dad, Greg the Nerd, Real Estate, Ridgewood, Titus Andronicus, Underwater Peoples, Vivian Girls
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