Stereogum’s Latest Band to Watch: Font

  • 3
    #6621
    chubes
    HMFIC
    Local Scene: Charleston, SC
    Rank: Flurry
    Points: 20702

    New interview and album review from Stereogum featuring Font, an Austin band that I saw at Hotel Vegas during SXSW. Stereogum praises the hell out of them and draws comparisons to LCD Soundsystem and Radiohead. Sonically, it’s hard to argue with that — Font truly does fit in that soundscape.

    They were definitely interesting live, playing experimental synth-infused rock, leaning a little on the heavy side. Another thing I remember is that they all set up on one corner of the stage and took up a small amount of space all together. After reading the interview about how their music is largely improvisational, I’m assuming that stage setup was part of the improv.

    Their debut album, Strange Burden, comes out this Friday July 12th.

    Here’s a link to the album on Bandcamp: https://fontmusic.bandcamp.com/album/strange-burden

    Here’s a quote from the Stereogum piece: 

    “The act of recording can make ironclad ideas that you want to continue exploring,” Laurence explains. “As a band that operates mainly in a live setting, and from an improvisational perspective, being able to perform them live and refine them over periods of time allowed us to find new pockets and interesting new angles in what we were doing. Also, it made it so that we didn’t have to make final decisions on things that reside in the song.” Even though we’ll soon have the official versions of the songs on Strange Burden, these recordings still possess a free-flowing quality that emphasize their improvisational origins. Font always record their practices in case a potential song idea comes out of it, and they adopt Talking Heads’ approach on Remain in Light by laying down the rhythm section first and building everything else on top of it. That rhythmic prioritization comes through loud and clear, and it’s one of the defining characteristics of Font’s work.

    Also, the Stereogum article explains the origins of the latest single “Hey Kekulé” – which comes from the 2017 Cormac McCarthy essay about the subconscious titled “The Kekulé Problem.

    PS – I can’t wait to get to Austin and operate in the same sphere as Stereogum…

    1
    #6814
    texastoasted
    Austin's Finest Toast
    Local Scene: Austin, TX
    Rank: Droplet
    Points: 29.5

    Font is such a great Austin band. I love that Stereogum picked them up.

    The album Strange Burden is out now, btw. Very interesting rock & roll music.

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