F.O.D. – ‘Harvest’, new album out February 7, 2017

F.O.D. – ‘Harvest’, out February 7, 2017
Funtime Records, Effervescence Records, Bird Attack Records, Bells On Records

Release show/festival, February 11, 2017
Hangar 27, Edegem with Call It Off, Adrenalized, PMX, and many more…

One could not possibly look past it these last few months, the entire internet but also the majority of the real life world was highly anticipating this Belgian band’s third full-album.  And too damn right we were!  The album is officially among us for a couple of days now, and I have yet to read the first not-totally-excited reaction or comment.  And that’s too damn right as well.

A melodic, harmony laden, emotional and diverse punkrock-anthem-filled beauty of an album it turns out to be.  Having had the privilege of an intimate listening session at my place, and getting my hands on both the vinyl and CD a wee bit sooner than the rest of the world, made me pick up my pen (well actually no it didn’t, it made me tap on my keyboard…) to write this down.  Brace yourselves for a completely biased analysis!

There’s 17 songs on this gem, and in non-stop rotation in my car for over a week, they made me realize something I had never before experienced with any other album ever.  The last song, “Seven Times”, which is one of my absolute favorites, ends with a last verse that lyrically and musically refers to the first song.  What an awesome and clever idea!  On repeat, this makes for a seamless transition back to song ‘1’, as if there was no end, nor a new beginning to the album.  It’s brilliant.  It makes you (or me, at least) not wanting to eject the CD, at all! Ever!!

As a whole, this album is by far F.O.D.’s best effort to date.  Their darkest too… It reads as a story or yes, a diary, covering the era in which songwriter Hans Roofthooft penned down these tunes and lines.  Personal suffering and hardship often make for the best albums and songs, and they most certainly have in this case.  Having heard of some of those experiences first-hand, months ago, made me choke up the first time I listened to corresponding songs with the lyric sheet.  The majority of the songs on here, paint the picture of nearly two years I guess, of going through a divorce, and the mess leading up to that heartbreaking decision.  Only to be followed by (what I can only imagine to be) the horrible feeling of being all alone with a broken heart, disillusioned, yet with three young kids whose world also got ripped apart, that take up all your energy in need of care, love and a stable family environment.  I still can’t sing along to ‘Forever Grateful (for Toon)’ without a lump in my throat.

Thank God the story ends with some positivity, courage, and the strong will and desire to look forward, and tackle the future, hopeful and confident.  That last song I mentioned before, is the perfect example : “…seven times I’ll fall, eight I’m standing up, I won’t let go…”

When I think about it, there is so much ‘story’ condensed in all of the lyrics, it is probably possible to write a book about this album, and who knows what will happen within a few years when this band has acquired the world-domination that it bloody well deserves!

But what about the music, you say… Well, I am no musician.  I can’t read a note, haven’t got a clue about chords, keys, octaves, bars, times, beats… absolute n00b.  But!  I can listen and compare, and give an honest, yet unsubstantiated opinion.  Here goes…  I still pick up influences here and there (Weezer, NUFAN, Bad Religion, Aussie skatepunk bands, …) but at the same time I truly believe this album has given F.O.D. their own, trademark ‘sound’.  The colour of Hans’ voice, combined with the ever present harmonies with Stijn, will often ring a Bad Religion bell, and some of the lyrical phrasing and song-build-up is comparable to other bands, yes.  But every song, when played outside of this album’s context, will have you think “Ah yes, this is probably an F.O.D.-song…!”, if you know anything at all about music, of course...

I even have my favorite ‘second’ in this album! How about that… It is 00:17 – 00:18 of the song “Autism Spectrum Disorder Blues”.  That shreddy, lightning fast, four-stroke-thingy, makes me cream my pants every single time.  Figuratively speaking that is…  What even makes this song, and by extension the entire album, so much more outstanding is the fact that this little one-second-hook could have easily been used three or four times.  But instead, at similar points further down the song, there’s a drum fill, or an unexpected pause-stop, or another riffy guitar bit.  It’s just brilliant, It is next-level craftsmanship and musicianship.  It makes for a never-boring and often-surprising listening experience, and I dare say that this has rarely been done so well.

All of the above, predicts a bright future for F.O.D., and a lot of blood, sweat and tears in the practice space, ha!  And I’ll be checking for a perfect execution of all the tricky bits at the release show this Saturday, HA!!

To conclude, after one week of intense listening, these are my favorite songs so far, in no particular order :

-        Crew You (because reasons)

-         Autism Spectrum Disorder Blues (because shreds)

-         Forever Grateful (because how torn apart can a father be)

-         Never Be Just Anyone (because I’m a sucker for staccato guitar bits, sue me!)

-         This Year Has Been The Worst Yet (because lyrics, so much beauty, so much pain…)

-         Seven Times (because chin up and see the light!!)

And the songs that were a bit harder to get into at first, but are well worth the effort.  They grew on me with every spin, and are almost just as favorite now, making this album extremely enjoyable front to back… :

-         There’s A Place (vocal effect intro : hello Green Day!!)

-         Kiss Away (that instrumental last 70+ seconds, didn’t like it at first, gets better every time)

There you go, that was just my opinion...  Now pick up this album if you haven’t yet, and go form one of your own!  Do it here :

F.O.D. bandcamp

funtimerecords mail to order

birdattackrecords bandcamp

effervescencerecords bandcamp

That is all.  Carry on.

Werner. (whose name sounds weird in English) (it does, you know…)

...but hey, who's counting??

 F.orty  O.ut-of-the-ordinary  D.ays

So did anyone guess my F.O.D. show counter currently reads : ‘40’?  Uhuh, that’s right, well you could say 42, if the last Dookie-re-enacting show in November 2012, and Hans’ solo (Han Solo, get it?) performance at the Red Cloud release show also qualify.  But let’s say they don’t.  Their Groezrock performance last weekend being my number 40 is a nice milestone.  Also that one being the last one (for a looooong time) with Stijn on vocal harmony ‘slash’ dancing and shenanigans duties seems fitting.  Some shoes to fill there, Roel!  But I’m sure you’ll do just fine, we got your ass covered… or wait, no, …  Whatever.

Now then, those 40 shows since august 2012 have left me with a shitload of great memories, dozens of new and awesome friends, a drumkit bargain for my 7-year old son, more goosebumps than my skin can handle, a few lumps in my throat and a teary eye or two…  A few highlights you say?  Well I might just do that!


August 10, 2012.  The ‘Thanks But No Thanks-records’ showcase stage at Kloemprock festival (RIP), was the first time I watched them perform.  Little did I know back then where this story would go, but I have to mention that one, just because…


July 12, 2013.  Mainstage at Kloemprock (RIP) this time, at the final edition of said festival.  At that time, their first full album, Ontario, had been released for four months, and you could tell that people had really picked it up, the atmosphere that night was great.  I met ‘De Vinger’ for the first time, and got that memory on a photo by the awesome Fientje Timmermans.  I sometimes find myself digging up the review I did for that night, and reading it again and again with a big smile on my face…


January 11, 2014.  First time I went abroad to see them.  The Pit in Terneuzen, Holland it was.  Not at all a memorable show when it comes to crowd turnout, but hell it was a great night.  I took three of the loveliest females on the planet along with me (probably coming in at places two, three and four in the all-time-females-ranking, in no particular order…) and we got into the venue as guests.  We joined the band for a meal and free backstage drinks, and we met the killer dudes in the 101’s.  Who have since then also become friends!  Thank you ladies and gents, it’s a pleasure reminiscing that evening… (that one fashion-wannabe-streetpunk kid moshing shit up all on his own, priceless!!)  (no, it wasn’t me)


May 1, 2014.  Riorock/Pre-Groezrock showcase.  Hanging out in and around the venue way before it opened, with the band and a lot of friends I didn’t even know a year before that day, was great.  The line up Kurt had fixed that night was also top notch, with Restorations, Gameface and effin’ Menziners playing in a small venue!  Meeting the Gameface guys in real life, after I had loved that band for 15 years was incredible.  Seeing them getting along and making friends with the F.O.D. dudes was the best.  I’m still proud of the review for the new Gameface album I wrote a few weeks prior to that show.  I’m still speechless when I think about the lovely words Todd said about it.  I still get goosebumps when I remember Hans messaging me that he couldn’t resist listening to the album after reading my review.  At the end of the day, everyone in F.O.D. was hooked on Gameface, and we all had great times hanging out after that show, and at Groezrock
festival itself the day after.


August 31, 2014.  Paris this time, on a bill with Masked Intruder and Ten Foot Pole.  Uhuh…  I took four friends with me on an awesome roadtrip and we witnessed a killer show in the really cool ‘petit bain’ venue.  It’s a boat on the river Seine.  Yes you read that right, a boat…  That performance will also always be remembered as “The Breaking Of The Curse Of Joëlle”.  The people involved will know what I’m on about.


September 27, 2014.  Funtime festival.  Probably one of the worst shows they ever played, truth be told.  But I will always have fond memories of it.  It was the first time I took my family with me to see them perform, and my son and daughter got a shout-out from Hans, and a song (Counting Numbers) dedicated to them, as they requested it.  Good times were had by all.


October 10, 2014.  F.O.D. fest/release show for ‘Tricks Of The Trade’.  One month after that sketchy Funtime gig, they totally nailed it at this special night with an all-star line up to celebrate the new album.  I mean really, what a night that was…  I remember screaming along to all the songs, old and new, probably so horribly off-pitch that it must’ve distracted Hans from time to time.  Goddammit I had the time of my life.  Not to mention a namedrop in the album’s ‘thank you list’, and in a song.  How about that hey…
Welcome To The Show


January 31, 2015.  Just a small show, but it was my birthday that night.  I had told Pierre long time ago, right after I mailed him the very first time, that I would love to hear an Undeclinable Ambuscade song in Hans’ voice with Stijn’s harmonies, and they had played ‘Lonely And Burning’ on quite a few occasions ever since.  I, however, had also been talking to Hans (bored him to death more likely…) about how I would love to hear them play ‘7 Years’.  He always countered my whining with some ‘excuse’ about the song needing two guitars and such.  A few weeks before this day, however, I picked up my whining again, and I started using the extra ‘leverage’ of it being my birthday and all that…  And it worked!  They played that song, and I couldn’t have been happier…  (well maybe a little bit if they ever play it again, with Hanne on female vocals for that one epic part, and maybe even Roel on second guitar because, you know, he’ll be around for some time…)  (Well there is that For I Am release show coming up in a month.  Just sayin’…)  (wink wink, nudge nudge)
7 Years



April 9 – April 12, 2015.  Spain.  Ooooowww yeeesssshhhhhh, me and five other friends (AKA ‘crewke’) joined the band on their four-day-tour ripping through the country from Barcelona to Madrid to Donostia and back to Vidreres.  Those were four EPIC shows, with the crowd turnout surprising us every single night.  Spending hours and hours in one van with those friends and not being fed up with them at the end of the trip, says it all really.  In fact, after the tour, we all couldn’t wait to meet again a few days later for another show.  Entire books can be written about those four days, but really, you had to be there to know how awesome it truly was.  (Voorhuid!)  Can we do that again someday?  Soon’ish…


May 2, 2015.  Groezrock festival.  One year and one day after playing the pre-show, here they are, at the real thing.  Opening up one of the stages on the second festival day, and filling up the tent, means a lot.  People had to crawl out of their sleeping bags and ignore monstrous hangovers to make it in time.  But they did, and they saw a great performance with a lovely atmosphere in the crowd.  The smiles on everyone’s faces were a sight for sore eyes.  I brought the one I love so dearly, and our son to the festival, and they both really enjoyed it.  I got to introduce them to so many of my friends that I would never have met if it weren’t for F.O.D. being around.

I tip my hat to them, and say goodbye (not farewell!!) to Stijn as he embarks on a long, well deserved journey with his family.  I have ended previous posts about F.O.D. with this particular line, but what the hell, here it is again, onwards to another 40 shows and more…



Carry on, gentlemen.  Carry on…

Project 2014 recap... :)

I posted this on my Facebook wall right after newyear, so most of you might have read it before... But I'll put it up here in notes for future reference, and for new friends I've made since, to have a clue about what the hell I'm putting pictures and descriptions of my CD's up for.... :D

Aaaand... I'll try to add all album art here also (even though it will become a really long post... we'll see...)

OK. So it's 2014. Nothing new really...
How about a project then? Yay! Let's do something, around music, with pictures, and try to catch a few people's attention... Right, here goes!!
I change CD's in my car regularly. But starting now, I'll be picking CD's out of my collection, alphabetically, one album per band at a time. That way, I will slowly but surely play every CD I own, good or bad, in the next months, maybe years...
I will do this for four CD's at once every time, keeping two spots open for more recent purchases, that haven't found their way to my alphabetical collection yet... ;)
To give you an idea, here's an overview pic of said collection...

I hope some of you will enjoy this, I know I will! Feel free to comment all you like, I'm just gonna say, in advance : "haters, schmaters" :D
(I'm not gonna lie, earlier ridiculously cool and awesome stuff by Max, Arjan and many others inspired me to try something out, but this thing will benefit me every day, as I'll re-discover old favorites and obscure rarities)

Album Review : "Now Is What Matters Now", by Gameface (EU march 21st, Equal Vision Records)

Gameface, as an active band, may have gone off the radar for a while, but there’s no way that I’d forgotten about them.  The rising tension when they announced a couple of re-appearances some time ago was living proof of that.  Tension that evolved into the appropriate level of euphoria recently, with the airing of the new single ‘Come On Down’, also opening song of the new album.  And you probably can’t even begin to imagine the feeling I got when they got added to this year’s Groezrock line up.  More than enough reason to talk about that new album, is what I thought!

All those who liked or loved Gameface’s previous albums, must have been over the moon after hearing ‘Come On Down’ for like, fifteen seconds.  Because it’s crammed with divine melodies and rhythms by Trout, Julian and Sanderson, supporting Jeff Caudill’s lovely vocal timbre which is irreplacable, and creates that trademark Gameface-sound.  Equally stunning, is the band’s team-effort to reach that typical sensation that comes off almost every Gameface song.  For instance, take the time to listen carefully to bass, guitars and drums on ‘Regular Size’, and realize how each instrument perfectly contributes to the lovely melody carrying that song.  And you’ll find several songs like that on the album.

There is also that one song, with another feel to it, being a raw, fast, stomper of a punkrock song.  Caudill is actually angry it seems, also reflected in the lyrics, and he sings it in an angry way, even furious maybe...  I’m going to give the song some time to grow on me, but for now, ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ is my least favorite track.

There are a few songs, like the aforementioned one, in which the band, or Caudill at least, takes a clear stand on a given subject.  Another fine example is ‘Save Your Words’, with Jeff addressing the kind of people, sadly enough omnipresent these days, that criticize anything and everything from behind their computerscreens.

“I’ve got opinions, on opinions, but I keep these things to myself.”

“Save. Your. Words.”

If you ask me, indeed one the most irritating consequences of how easy it has become to comment online and almost anonymously, on various fora, ‘news’websites and all kinds of social media.  Today’s youngsters seem to be able to just shrug their shoulders and say ‘yeah...whatever dude...’.  But I presume that all of you who, like myself, grew up in the ‘offline’ 80’s and 90’s of the previous century, can relate to Jeff Caudill’s point of view.

But the overall feel of the album however, is one of a band that, musically and lyrically, sees eye to eye.  A band that has come clean with itself, and with each other.  A band also, that wants to convey a message, without forcing it down our throats, but more as a guiding line for us, and for themselves.  Because in almost every song you’ll find something, a little or a lot, that can be traced back to one of the most condensed and significant album titles I’ve come across : ‘Now Is What Matters Now’.  The following snippets of lyrical beauty have been stuck in my head for a couple of days now :

‘Come On Down’

“Learn to laugh, look back, let go, stay young, stay beautiful...”

‘Now’

“I’ve never noticed until now, how the landscape changes, and every day erases.”

“Every step that you put down, it doesn’t matter now, it doesn’t matter now...”

‘Regular Size’

“And we disappear, a little more every year.”

“Harder to recognize, moving towards the horizon line.”

“Perspective, where we want to be.”

“Reflective, what we want to see.”

“People get small, and get lost in space.”

“And we lose focus, as they move away, everyday.”

“I want to stay here by your side, at regular size.”

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what EMO music used to be about, and what it should always be about.  Lyrics of a breathtaking beauty, by a truly gifted poet, expressing his EMOtions, thoughts and feelings in a heartfelt and passionate way, over layers of lovely melodies, showing off some great musicianship.  As opposed to your average horrible metal-core mayhem, fronted by yet another  hair-dyeing, cap-wearing, neck- and/or facial tattoo-sporting douchebag, screaming the shit out of his lungs about suicide, murder, and the end of the world...

Now go and listen to this record, let the songs grow on you, and come back to thank me later...