MAJOR (GRAY SPLATTER VINYL)

Fang Island described their music as the sound of "everyone high fiving
everyone." No matter where they went, Fang Island's up-with-people approach
made them a subversive art project by default. At a time when the belligerent
noise-rock of Lightning Bolt and The Body defined Providence, Fang Island
played major-key guitar harmonies and flashy tapping riffs. When people tried
to call them "math-rock," they thought of themselves as "recess rock." Fang
Island shared bills with uber-buzzy bands like Yeasayer and Chairlift at Cake
Shop and Santos Party House, crucibles for Brooklyn hype at the turn of the
aughts; but their most impactful co-sign came from Andrew WK.
At least until Fang Island earned an unexpected Best New Music review at
Pitchfork; in the style of the time, the group - now including drummer Marc St.
Sauver and guitarist Nick Sadler - were thrust from playing "literally empty
shows" at hot dog stands in Ohio to becoming the toast of SXSW and starting
their North American tour with psych-rock idols the Flaming Lips in an Atlantic
City casino. They would later play sprawling amphitheaters with Stone Temple
Pilots, and in perhaps the best demonstration of their ability to wield pop
smarts to guitar pyrotechnics, both Matt & Kim and Coheed & Cambria.
Two years after Fang Island released what they expected to be their first and
only album, Major became the "highly anticipated sophomore LP." The songs
were bigger, shinier and hookier, forged under the pressure that comes with
being a band rather than a couple of weekend warriors - label pressures,
grueling tours and the frequent personnel changes that ultimately brought the
band to their amicable end. Fang Island began with the crackle fireworks and,
as the band heard fireworks going off in the distance as they played in
Barcelona, they took it as a supernatural sign that this show would be the
perfect bookend to their career. "We were getting older, we were in serious
relationships, we were getting tired, and that just felt like the right way to end
it."