This article is the beginning of something new I’m going to try. Album reviews will still happen regularly, but on occasion I’m going to pop in here and instead I’m going to talk about an awesome little indie band or artist and tell you why they’re awesome.
Deciding who to talk about first was actually quite easy. I opened my iTunes, clicked on “Top 25 Most Played” and saw that the entire list was being completely dominated by one band, and that band was Fun.
Fun (often written as “fun.”) is something of a super-group. When Arizona natives The Format split in February of 2008, singer Nate Ruess immediately contacted two friends he’d met when The Format was touring- Andrew Dost from Michigan group Ananthallo and Jack Antonoff of New Jersey’s Steel Train. Together, they formed something wholly unlike any of their other bands.
Toasted by many reviewers as “theatrical” and noticeably influenced by Broadway and musical theater, their 2009 debut album Aim and Ignite has gotten acclaim from the press and public alike although they have yet to get a single on the charts. Since its release, the band has kept up a grueling tour schedule, going out in both the US and the UK with bands like Jack’s Mannequin, Reliant K, Motion City Soundtrack, and Paramore, particularly impressive considering that some of their tours were followed immediately by Steel Train tours, putting guitarist Jack Antonoff on the road for more than half the year.
Fun. recently announced that they will be going on a headlining tour in the US this fall, ranging from September to November. Supporting acts have not yet been announced, but if they’re coming to your city you should make the trip. Fun. is one of those bands that sounds just as amazing in person as they do on a studio album, true musicians not hidden behind electric sound and editing software.
Must-have tracks:
“All the Pretty Girls”
“At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)”
“Barlights”