Fang Island

Brooklyn's Fang Island describe their aesthetic as "everyone high-fiving everyone." So it's appropriate that the band's website features a video of them jamming out with kindergartners and another with Andrew WK-- people so caught up in having a good time that you sometimes wonder if they're bullshitting you. What helps Fang Island steamroll past cynicism is how "fun" isn't just an ornament for them, it's embedded in the band's musical DNA.

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Looking at the album cover for Brooklyn-based five piece Fang Island's eponymous debut, it would be easy to jump to conclusions. It features what looks like a found photo of two kids in the front yard, one dressed up like a princess, the other with a giant castle suit on. It's the kind of random, artfully ironic and seemingly meaningless photo that pretty earnest blog bands use to remain faceless and be knowingly detached from, like, the real world. Using an iPhone app. Yet, the music these guys make is fun with a capital 'F'.

Full Review | More Reviews from Publication | Top Rated of 2010