The Fierce & The Dead

We’re simply blown away and can’t wait to share “Part 1” with our listeners, if that’s okay. Your guitar work is fucking brilliant and the tone is a dream. It’s rare that we get this excited over new musicians (new to us, anyway) and I wanted to share that with you - Online

I was instantly impressed. Sort of a post rock trip through many genres. This thing takes so many corners in its 19 minutes it's unreal. Good for chilling out to. Certainly one to keep an eye on, can't wait to hear more from these guys - Online

I know I just threw up {pun probably intended} a blurb on The Fierce & The Dead yesterday, but I spent most of the remaining day digesting Part 1 … and subdividing it. And it keeps getting better with each spin. On my cursory spin I threw out a few names for comparison’s sake and I was wondering if I was on target with those. I think I was. I was worried about mentioning the more languid passages of Kinski hoping “languid” wasn’t construed as limp. On the contrary; if you’re familiar with Kinski then you know “languid Kinski” does not mean light or slight in the least. Even the quietest Kinski carries a punch, and TFATD do too. TFATD let things play out on Part 1 and let it take numerous twists and turns. Twists and turns that work, by the way; they have a point and a destination. And by not being afraid or hesitant to offer up something that clocks in at almost 20 minutes, they can work those digressions out and bring it all back full circle. By the end of the track, I’m not sure I know where I started anymore {and to be honest, I don’t care}, but it all makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense, or work, is trying to stick them in a category, even though that’s the usual attempt. I suppose that’s just another form of shorthand when used judiciously, as is comparison. Earlier, I had mentioned Cul de Sac and the Mermen {and I should throw Mogwai in the mix while I’m at it} and I’ll stand by that. But, as I digressed on an earlier post about David Max, there’s no mockery or aping of, say, the bands I threw out there from my vocabulary. Sure, bits and pieces remind me of other stuff I heard, etc … that make me want to put TFATD in the same pigeon-hole of “post-rock” but I want to do so more because of them following a way of thinking, or approaching things, rather than trying to recreate that certain chiming signature guitar sound from a certain signature guitar player …

I’m getting nowhere with this.

Quickly … TFATD move through their dynamics and sonics fluidly so that my point of focus is always in flux. I can’t nail it down. And that’s a wonderful thing. I don’t need everything quantified. That leaves me so many little side trips to take each time I go back in … and like TFATD they lead back to a conclusion, one that seems logical even though you’re not sure how you got there.

When I was a young, young pup my first drive-in experience was Tommy {with Dumbo no less}. I was taken by my older, older brother. I guess what I’m trying to get at, to be quick, is this: when that fresh, young mind absorbed Tommy, it knew what was going on, it just couldn’t tell you about it. If that makes sense, and I think it does. Absorbing Part 1 is like that.

Or, to use a cruder, hoary tale for those in the know: Cue back in young, fresh mind … Ann Margaret in Tommy rolling around in those baked beans?

I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I’m excited.

Onwards, and certainly upwards. - online