You don’t want me to inform you that Seattle has modified quite a bit since 1999. The meteoric ascent of Amazon and large tech has left components of the town almost unrecognizable as lease has skyrocketed, beloved music venues have come and gone, and tons of of Northwest bands have risen to fame and damaged up. Amidst this ever-shifting course of, although, one establishment stays robust: The Northwest pop-punk legends Fastbacks.
“Identical to the House Needle and Dick’s, Fastbacks are all the time round and simply as iconic,” mentioned Seattle musician Rick Friel, who’s performed with the likes of the Rockfords and Goodness. “Their unbiased, playful spirit, can-do angle, and humorousness are what the Northwest is all about.”
On August 28, bassist and vocalist Kim Warnick, guitarist Kurt Bloch, guitarist and vocalist Lulu Gargiulo, and drummer Michael Musburger will launch For What Cause!, the band’s first album in 25 years. And the songs are nearly as good—if not higher!—as they’ve ever been. The 11 tracks are chock stuffed with catchy hooks, shredding guitar leads, and that signature Fastbacks sound that leaves your cheeks aching from smiling and singing alongside. Over time, they’ve launched albums on Sub Pop and Pop Llama, however this one might be self-released on Bloch’s label, No Three’s Information.
“The concept of looking for a document label and any person to place our document out simply appeared ridiculous,” Musburger mentioned with amusing. “Ridiculous.”
Although by no means fairly a family identify in comparison with a few of their late-’80s and early ’90s contemporaries like Alice in Chains or Soundgarden (and, they are saying, that positively was by no means their aim anyway), Fastbacks are a band’s band, whose power-pop-punk sound earned them a cult-like following amongst music followers and friends alike. (And earlier than you get all, “There is no such thing as a ‘The,’ It’s simply Fastbacks,’” just like the world’s most unbearable Pixies followers, please know that whether or not you name them Fastbacks or the Fastbacks, the band assured me there isn’t any incorrect reply—it’s interchangeable.)
“The Fastbacks are probably the most Seattle band ever,” mentioned Ben London. Because the Government Director for Sonic Guild Seattle and a musician who’s carried out with and labored on information by everybody from Alcohol Funnycare to the Gits to Stag to Saint Bushmill’s Choir, he’s heard his share of native rock. “They’re as if the Island of Misfit Toys fashioned a band and wrote 1,000,000 songs mocking everybody else for not being a misfit.”
As a lifelong diehard fan of Northwest rock, assembly up for espresso with Fastbacks on the quirky West Seattle house-turned-coffee store C&P was a dream come true.
Sitting down alongside these 4, I instantly felt the sibling-like bond between the members. They end one another’s sentences, inform self-deprecating inside jokes, and meander into fantastic tales, like that point again in 1979 when Bloch bought to see a younger Judas Priest open up on the Paramount, then raced right down to the Seattle Middle Coliseum to see Van Halen, solely to sneak again into the Paramount to catch a headlining UFO set.
For founding members Bloch, Gargiulo, and Warnick, this bond goes again greater than 45 years, to their days at Nathan Hale Excessive Faculty.
Even earlier than their band began practising within the basement in ’79, Gargiulo and Warnick have been pals. The 2 met Bloch a pair years later in school, they usually began a small photograph enterprise collectively. Musburger joined the crew in 1992. He was a seasoned touring musician by that time, as an authentic member of the Posies and Love Battery. Whereas Fastbacks are infamous for having a rotating solid of characters behind the drum set—Weapons N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan stuffed the function for a stint within the ’80s—at this level, Musburger says he’s the longest-tenured drummer within the band’s historical past.
“It’s like having a household that you’ve got been with to your entire life,” Gargiulo says.
“Even with out the Fastbacks, we’d all be pals,” Musburger provides.
When the subject of the Seattle rock growth of the early ’90s will get introduced up, Bloch instantly hops in with the jokes.
“I am not saying that we have been in opposition to any main label stuff, they simply didn’t come knocking. There have been loads of them round. It might be attention-grabbing to speak to them now and ask, ‘Why didn’t you want this band?’”
Gargiulo jokingly made a case for a brand new reporting angle.
“‘So yeah, I am calling on behalf of the Fastbacks and I simply have this query… ‘Why not them?’ Yeah, possibly that needs to be the identify of the subsequent document. Why Not Them?”
So why, after 25 years, are Fastbacks placing out a brand new document? Nobody supplied them absurd quantities of reunion cash, and tens of millions of followers aren’t clamoring for extra after listening to an previous track go viral on TikTok (but).
Seems it’s fairly easy.
Simply over a 12 months in the past, the 4 pals all met up for lunch to select up some LPs Bloch was reissuing. Issues escalated shortly from there.
“Kim was like, ‘We should always make a brand new album.’ Which is what these guys are all the time saying,” Bloch says. “I’m all the time like, ‘No, we shouldn’t make a brand new document.’”
However as a substitute of leaving it at that, Musburger went forward and referred to as up a longtime pal of the band, Joe Reineke, to inquire about reserving a while at his Seattle studio, Temple of the Bushes. Coincidentally, he had a free couple of days in a couple of month. Certainly sufficient time to jot down and document a Fastbacks document, proper?
“That is once we needed to do it,” says Warnick. “[We said] ‘Nicely, I assume we now have two days of studio time booked now. We higher.’”
Up to now, Bloch needed to do a lot of the work—“As a result of he has to do every thing. If it’s gonna occur, it’s as much as him,” says Musburger—however this time was completely different. Warnick introduced some materials along with her, together with the primary single, “Come On”, they usually had an unreleased B-side to work with. They even revived a track they recorded again in 2002 by re-recording the drums. That observe, “The World Inside,” closes the album, and, clocking in at slightly over seven minutes, it steps exterior the band’s traditional 120-second sonic blast of joyful pepped-up punk system.
After we swerve away from the jokes and tales of Seattle’s rock ‘n’ roll previous, you possibly can inform the bandmates are sincerely excited concerning the ultimate outcomes. There aren’t any media-trained and canned PR marketing campaign solutions, simply actual, uncooked vitality and happiness.
“[For What Reason!] sounds simply killer,” Gargiulo says. “Although we’re actually previous, there’s that youthful form of vitality that form of is infused.”
“The one factor completely different is the songwriting. I feel it is gotten slightly higher,” Warnick provides.
Whereas they do not plan on taking part in any extra reside reveals—reveals are hectic and simply not as enjoyable as they was once, they are saying—you possibly can nonetheless get a repair of that old-school Fastbacks feeling at their official album launch celebration and signing occasion on August 29 at Straightforward Avenue Information. The band says it is going to characteristic a roundtable dialogue hosted by McKagan and “questionable solutions.”
Their enthusiasm for For What Cause! stretches out into the longer term, too. When requested if, after ready 25 years for this album, it is going to take one other 25 years for a follow-up, Warnick is optimistic.
“I definitely hope not.”
The Fastbacks will host a For What Cause! listening and signing occasion at Straightforward Avenue Information Thursday, August 29, at 7 pm. It is free and all ages.
