When The Madhouses Appear

Remember when you would go see a band play a show and you would have no idea what to expect? There was a sort of excitement of anticipation, of the unknown. Of course, it could have been terrible, but you also might stumble upon something truly remarkable and moving. It’s rare to find yourself in this situation now, with myspace, music blogs and the rest you’ve usually listened to a band’s entire discography before you enter the venue. It’s similar to the effect that facebook has had on society: before you ‘officially’ meet someone, you’ve likely checked out their profile, and know more about them than you should when ‘meeting’ them for the first time. Whatever happened to the essence?

Featured song: The Fling – Strangers

Unfortunately, I was not introduced to the band The Fling in a live setting, as I can only imagine what a great experience that might be. I was, however, introduced them completely out of the blue, with no pre-conceived knowledge. I was completely innocent and still waiting for Pitchfork to tell me if they were good. The first thing that comes to mind when listening to the Fling is their passion, and you can almost instantly tell how invested they are in their music and how much fun they would be to see live. Like Los Angeles counterparts Dawes and Delta Spirit, they lay it all on the line, which is really the only way to go.

The Fling is a true band. Nothing against solo projects, electro-pop or bedroom duos, but it’s hard to really call them bands. A four piece outfit from Long Beach, the Fling play passion-filled, soulful Americana rock, with traces of folk and country and lyrics that land somewhere between the Beatles and Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez, who not surprisingly sings on a few tracks from their debut album, When the Madhouses Appear, which will be self-released on August 31st.

The Fling – “When The Madhouses Appear” Album Teaser from The Fling on Vimeo.

The album is full of ballads that sound way more upbeat than their lyrics would suggest. But this is a great art of storytelling and songwriting: to turn pain and sorrow into something beautiful. The Fling may be criticized by some for their straightforward nature, but when there’s so much focus on the lyrics and the story being told, it’s easy to see why they wouldn’t want to take away from that with over-complex production: the lyrics are what really count. The arrangements of the songs and the communal feel that they hold make you instantly think that this would be a wonderful band to see or stumble upon live. Despite the sometimes darker nature of their songs, you can hear that this band is happy to be together and above all that they are having fun.

The Fling strikes me as a band on the move. Their album teaser video on their myspace page shows them riding around in a van as they prepare for a show. The music video for the song ‘Wanderingfoot’ shows the band again in the same van on the road. They are never still in any of these videos and their music embodies that seem feeling of movement, like it’s taking you somewhere. This movement can be infectious and easy to get caught up in, so don’t fight it.

Check out The Fling on MySpace.

To read our full interview with The Fling, click here.