DESCRIPTION:
I originally had some other garbage lined up for today, but I figured it’d be best if I found something else that better suited my current mood. It’s shit. My mood is shit. Having the displeasure of living with myself for three-odd (dog) years, I know that me talking – let alone writing – about something that I’m not entirely stoked on would just extort nothing but cheeky, assholish comments that, surely, your personal life is already infested with. I mean, my overt cynicism certainly isn’t breaking any “new ground” in the punk community, so why even bother? Fuck sarcasm, fuck irony, and fuck this new-age concession of “fashionized” apathy. I’m sad, pissed, and Fex Urbis is one of the few bands I have on my to-post list that accommodates to each of those feelings to a tee, so this is what I’m going with. Well, it’s either that or one of the, like, dozen or so sad-boy pop-punk bands that I’ve been meaning to cover at one point or another. But you wouldn’t want to get caught listening to THAT, now would you?

Angst aside, Fex Urbis is a fantastic band with a loose, gothic rock-inspired sound that I can’t seem to get enough of. In my experience, bands like this don’t seem to reach my ears all too often, and it’s a damn shame. Just as a member of this group told me, the majority of goth-punk bands infesting the airwaves are uncharacteristically “clean and sheeny” in spite of the influences that they’re supposedly founded upon, possessing refined, dirgelike melodies that are difficult to synonymize with punk – but then again, the term “punk” has become so watered down by this point that the classification has been rendered negligible at best. Fex Urbis, on the other hand, stands true to its roots. This London post-punk group not only panders to all the elements necessary for establishing gothic rock’s prodigious sense of atmosphere –with its searing, distorted guitar tones, creating a warped resonance to outline the melodious basslines –, but also presents itself in a way that’s undeniably, well, “punk”. The scratchy, ragged vocals accentuates the group’s desire for noise and incessancy (which is similarly reflected in the periodical noise segments), and the fierce tempo brought on by the top-notch drumwork assures the music never alleviates its potency, even throughout the slower, more-concentrated efforts exemplified in “Sewer” and “Daydream”, which are two compositions that better revel in the group’s gothlike qualities. While it may be somewhat of a jarring change of pace to those with pre-defined standards for gothic rock and post-punk alike, Fex Urbis’ genuine rawness and tasteful impurities help breathe new life into a helplessly gloomy subgenre, and is more than appreciated on my end. Simply put, I think this band is amazing -- “What’s Going On With You?” is an ungodly treasure of a song. Tapes are available below if you're interested, this one comes highly recommended.

TRACK LIST:
- 0:00
What’s Going On With You? – 1:07
Stone Age – 3:15
Grey Garden – 6:18
Sewer – 8:29
Daydream – 12:10

DOWNLOAD: https://fexurbis.bandcamp.com/releases