How I Like Les Savy Fav: The Playlist

Like the Talking Heads, Les Savy Fav met at RISD and staked their claim in New York just in time to take part in an uptick of hipster-rock popularity. Unlike Talking Heads, the quartet (later quintet) stayed remarkably democratic, indulging in years-long breaks for personal lives, day jobs and art careers, while never calling it quits (two or three of them play in Seth Meyers' house band, and I used to see frontman Tim Harrington in the Viacom cafeteria during my NYC blogging days - hard guy to miss!) Like Talking Heads, LSF is hailed for their memorable live sets, which combine invigorating post-punk with Harrington's outlandish costuming choices. Unlike Talking Heads, they never took a swing at the mainstream, releasing almost every album on their bassist's label Frenchkiss. The Heads' sixth album, Little Creatures, came out less than eight years after their debut. Les Savy Fav's sixth album, Oui, LSF, dropped today, almost twenty-seven years after their first. And with that, I'll stop needlessly comparing them to Talking Heads.

As the proud owner of every LSF studio album (including Inches, a stand-alone singles compilation always intended to flow like a full-length) except their first (which ain't bad, just gestative), I am thrilled that Les Savy Fav has put out their first album in over a decade. But I'm also in no rush to assess and obsess over it. Where Talking Heads dramatically evolved their sound throughout their relatively brief career (that’s the last, I swear), LSF has barely changed at all since the '90s. Sure, a song might have a surprise horn outro, but they're not going to record a soul exercise. Unless it's a jagged, post-hardcore guitar-bass-drums song where half-way through you realize Tim Harrington is shrieking about Otis Redding swinging his scythe atop the tallest pyramid.

In the two decades I've been acquainted with the band (2001's Go Forth enthusiastically encouraged for airplay in the Penn State indie show CD binder), I've learned my initial reaction to a new release is "nice, but more of the same." Eventually, as Harrington's trippy narratives make themselves known (the traditional placement of his yelp in the mix is total scenester stand-offishness made ultra-ironic by the quality of the lyrics, but hey - it's their label!) and the hooks ingrain themselves in my psyche, the album becomes blessedly more of the same. I can think of great bands with a similar sound - Lungfish, Fugazi, Jesus Lizard - but Les Savy Fav is a post-hardcore party band with little parallel, not bothering to pretend this sound isn't amenable to a good fucking time. Be it a basement kegger, a paint night with the sci-fi book club, or a backyard brunch where someone finds the kids' balloon swords.

If their shrill sonic stasis has been daunting to penetrate despite the enthusiasm of your bearded buddies, or if this is all fresh news to you, I went and made one of my introductory playlists that's less of a best-of than a jumping off point meant to establish vibe and sell you on their shtick. 2007's Let's Stay Friends is easily my favorite of their full-lengths, a touch more anthemic and artful than what came fore and aft, so I included three tracks from that (including "Raging In The Plague Age," which should be recognized by anyone who's flipped the dial speeding through Grand Theft Auto IV). The aforementioned 1997 debut, 3/5, makes one appearance. Every other full-length - including Inches - two. If you're cool enough to wonder why nothing from the Emor: Rome Upside Down EP is included, you don't need this anyway.

How I Like Les Savy Fav: The Playlist
(Spotify link above, YouTube links below)

1. "Pots And Pans" (Let's Stay Friends, 2007)
2. "Hold On To Your Genre" (Inches, 2004)
3. "Who Rocks The Party" (The Cat And The Cobra, 1999)
4. "Patty Lee" (Let's Stay Friends, 2007)
5. "Lips N' Stuff" (Root For Ruin, 2011)
6. "Scout's Honor" (3/5, 1997)
7. "Raging In The Plague Age" (Let's Stay Friends, 2007)
8. "The End" (The Cat And The Cobra, 1999)
9. "Adopuction" (Go Forth, 2001)
10. "Calm Down" (Root For Ruin, 2011)
11. "Bloom On Demand" (Go Forth, 2001)
12. "Our Coastal Hymn" (Inches, 2004)

Comments, queries and cries of acclaim can be typed up and forwarded to anthonyisright at gmail dot com. Meanwhile, Let's Stay Friends is at 58 on My Top 300 Favorite Albums of All Time. I'm telling you this because I've found people are more inclined to discuss and share reviews if there's a quantitative element at the top or bottom they can easily debate. Prove me right!