Guided by the mantra Drink Coffee, Make Noise, Who Cares?, Frig Dancer is the unexpected we’ve always been taught to expect.
Matt Carter
For fans of the Quispamsis death/doom/grind trio Anthesis, news that an offshoot group was in the works mostly likely, for some, conjured up dreams of new avenues in heavy music and crushing power. After all, the band’s 2017 full-length debut The Age of Self remains one of the heaviest New Brunswick recordings of the past decade, possibly ever. But when Frig Dancer released their debut single, Fire Truck, back in July of 2018, it became immediately apparent guitarist Scott Miller and drummer Andrew Martin had little interest in challenging the sheer might of their mainstay but instead, were looking to try something completely different.
Guided by the mantra Drink Coffee, Make Noise, Who Cares?, Frig Dancer is the unexpected we’ve always been taught to expect.
For starters, the lyrics for the band’s first single were penned by an imaginative four year old named Kieran Russell (Police Car, Fire Truck, Lego, Fire Truck, Some People are on Fire, Some People are Hurt) and the single’s artwork was drawn by five year old contemporary-artist-in-the-making Cole Hooper. Not exactly the aggressive path some might have expected. Far from it.
“Kieran is my nephew and Cole is Scott’s nephew,” said drummer Andrew Martin. “My wife overheard Kieran singing those lyrics while she was babysitting him. She told me about them because she thought it was hilarious that he was singing something so weird. So we stole his lyrics.”
And that’s just the beginning. The band’s full-length debut Hot Garbage draws on several unexpected elements that make up the Frig Dancer mythos – from simple entertaining observational lyricism to the high contrast instrumentation of straight ahead guitar and drums – to create an album that is as much a deliberate shift in direction as it is just a fun exploration of barebones rock and roll with a healthy dose of humour.
“We had no intention when we started the band, so we didn’t know where it would go. I think I pictured the band being a little more in the hardcore realm, but the songs started ending up pretty catchy, so then we leaned in that direction a little more,” said Miller, who also recorded, mixed and mastered the record.
“As for the humour, we thought it would be a bit funny but I love that a lot of the stuff I find the funniest on the album comes across really serious when you hear it. Not like it’s a joke record or band, just some funny subject matter,” he said.
Across the album’s 16 tracks, Martin and Miller both sing about uncomfortable dinner parties, misfit pets and the joy of throwing full-on tantrums, yet the playing remains tight and precise as with everything they’ve done up to this point.
“The song 48 sounds really serious but it is about me missing the bus in grade 2 and flipping out, crying in my one piece snow suit,” said Martin.
While Hot Garbage, and Frig Dancer for that matter, may simply be an excuse for two longtime friends and fellow musicians to continue to write and create music together, the album itself has all the makings of an east coast punk rock classic.
Hot Garbage was released May 17 on Ancient Temple Recordings (limited edition vinyl) and Hibernation Release (limited edition cassette).
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