FIX – More Is More

Description

Fix blew me away with their debut single a couple years ago – not from the music, but from the fact that they just called themselves “Fix”, blatantly swiping the name of one of the greatest American hardcore pioneers for their basement-y sounding weird-punk band. This time around, it appears Fix is an actual live band, and with that came a stylistic shift. Rather than blasting out some direct-to-laptop egg-punk full of neon farts and irritating-on-purpose motifs, they’ve transitioned to a sinewy hardcore-punk outfit, no contrivance needed. On More Is More, they come across like Germany’s answer to Hank Wood & The Hammerheads. The drumming has that same swing (and lots of cowbell!), and the vocalist delivers his shouts in short staccato bursts, much in the Hank Wood manner. Can’t say with certainty that Fix are intentionally aping Hank Wood this time around, but the similarities are certainly glaring, and Hank Wood are one of the most popular underground punk bands, or at least were a year or two ago, so it wouldn’t be a total shock. Thankfully, Fix do well with that same set of sonic characteristics, and the lack of singalong hooks might be more due to my lack of fluent German than their lack of catchiness. Now then, if some other band from Leipzig starts calling themselves The Necros and sounds eerily like Chubby & The Gang, my tolerance will truly be put to the test. – Yellow Green Red