I played this album on every car trip I took. It hung out with me on hikes. I pulled it out during gatherings. It never ended. It was and is, in my opinion, still a crazy masterpiece that adheres to you like urushiol and itches into your bones.
That album is Facing New York - Get Hot.
Fast forward to 2018. Ten years after the release of their second full-length album Get Hot (following the 2005 self-titled album, and the 2004 EP Swimming Not Treading), Facing New York comes back with a bang.
I had heard many rumors about the band.. sources saying they broke up a year or so after the last album. I was prepared to let Get Hot become another one of those genius one-off LPs from a band that had gone the way of all flesh. I heard they were getting together from time to time, and doing single shows, maybe once a year. I watched as many YouTube videos as I could find, absorbing the live shows, watching the band footage in whatever form I could find it.
The news of a new album was something I was pretty much unprepared for. I had already gone through my Best Of 2018 list little by little, chipping away at the insane amount of music of the year... lo and behold, Facing New York comes in with an explosive couple of new tunes in November. I lost it. There was the beginning of Dogtown.
I was not ready to believe it.
Here we are, December. Dogtown is out, and it's killer.
First track opens up strong.. the title track leading the rest of the pack like a boss. True FNY-styled madness.
Big Rev follows closely. A tune about expecting twins. It's got another one of those "snarky" riffs I've come to love and expect from the band.
Gods Of The Good Shit comes in, saying all the things about my own marriage, and the things leading up to it, I sometimes forget how to say. It's one of my favorite tracks on the album, with its faux-simplistic sound belying its true complex structure and subject matter.
Hail Mary rolls up in a minivan full of car seats, ready to trounce the kids on the home team with adult super powers from the days of yore. Or is it the other way around? Either way, we're looking at TRUE FNY style. A little groove, a little scathing derision held in the melody. A stand-out track.
Birth Of Venus wakes up with a raging hard-on, clinging a little more to the dawn with a doting wink at the one you cherish waking up with every day.
Trouble seeks to cause no trouble, or stir up any nonsense. We can only assume that everybody has their own issues to deal with, and very few actually have the time to be called on... This is a straight-up rock and roll tune. We're not talking about distant galaxies we've never seen.. we're not talking about dragons, here. We're talking about monkeys of all kinds on backs of all kinds, putting good people through more problems they can handle, while everybody else has some other monkey...
Shame is a real shame... following the exploits of a lost man...
Heaven Is High Hell Is Low... gut-wrenching hankerings to recollect what may or may not have been halcyon days....
Your Love prides itself in not not allowing me to fall too far as I'm falling too far.
I feel
like I've waited years for this album. Wait.. I HAVE waited years for
this album! Is it good? Is it what I hoped for? You better believe it!
Facing New York, killing it once again. A band that grows up while you
grow up. This goes into the Best Of The Year List without even thinking
twice... Remember to RSVP to the release party at my house, whether the
band shows up or not.
