Your New Favorite Band: Fair Ohs

Fair Ohs manages to take things a step further in the funkier direction on their debut record Everything Is Dancing. Influences abound from West Africa funk to '60s psychedelic rock, coalescing into 35 minutes of funky, post-punk indie rock...

By Michael Lopez

July 21, 2011

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18478561",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "16759093",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759092",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759094",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        }
      ]

Fair Ohs manages to take things a step further in the funkier direction on their debut record Everything Is Dancing. Influences abound from West Africa funk to '60s psychedelic rock, coalescing into 35 minutes of funky, post-punk indie rock.

The tropical feel of Fair Ohs is hard to ignore across their debut album -- an album that is gloriously kicked off with the twangy, rollicking "Baldessari." There are the clearly evident hints of Vampire Weekend in the song, but lead singer Eddy Frankel has a decidedly different singing style than that of Ezra Koenig -- and thank god for that, honestly. It's as if Fair Ohs have taken what was at all edgy about Afropop when indie rock fans started lapping it up in late 2007 and tweaked that sound with more garage/punk ideals.
Everything Is Dancing is a clear summer album, full of light offerings about rocks and lakes that are sure to keep the kids dancing, but there's an underlying dingy feel to Fair Ohs' sound -- one that lends an intangible listenability to the album.

Everything Is Dancing is kept afloat by standout tracks "Eden Rock," "Colours" and "Yah" -- that latter of which follows a meandering slow build into an impressive crescendo of cascading, reverb-heavy guitars. Some tracks on Everything Is Dancing are pretty straightforward summer jams, the others require a few listens to really figure out. Such is the inherent charm of Fair Ohs and Everything Is Dancing.

Oh, and Fair Ohs is a brilliant name for a band. Who doesn't love a little wordplay every now and then?

Everything Is Dancing is out July 26 via Lefse. Tracklist is as follows:

1. Baldessari
2. Eden Rock
3. Colours
4. Yah
5. Almost Island
6. Everything Is Dancing
7. Helio
8. Katasraj
9. Marie
10. Summer Lake

Please enjoy the video for "Everything Is Dancing:"

Everything Is Dancing from Fair Ohs on Vimeo.

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Phoenix New Times has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.