Let’s All Go to Fang Island

Recently I texted a friend, “Two words: Fang Island,” and he was sold based on the name alone. From their set at Neumo’s Thursday night, it’s clear that all the Brooklyn five-piece needs to have a good time is three guitars, a bass, drums, and a whole bunch of pedals. Okay, so there’s the occasional keyboard too–and five mics, because everybody in the band gets to sing, yell, and chant along to their songs.

Fang Island describes their sound as “everyone high-fiving everyone,” which is another way of saying that it’s just plain fun. (You can stream the whole self-titled full-length debut or buy it for $7 at their site.) I always make the comparison to Ratatat, because even their instrumentals seem to have lyrics, in the form of super-catchy guitar riffs. The only thing the band needs to fear (besides the here-today-gone-tomorrow nature of the music blogosphere’s love) is becoming a soundtrack for frat boys, as per the guy “toasting” the band, with his Red Stripe in the air for most of last night’s show. Fang Island is just having fun, playing songs and rocking out, not even aware that there’s an audience present. Probably for the best, since the crowd at Neumo’s was a little more sedate than you’d like for such an exuberant band.


Fang Island were allotted forty-five minutes for last night’s set, which I thought was long, considering they’ve only got one album and a couple EPs. Indeed, at the thirty-minute mark, they got done playing “Davy Crockett” and started packing up their gear. “One more song!” a few guys in the crowd yelled, but that was it. Fang Island ain’t got no more.