Fenix*TX
Fenix*TX are playing Slam Dunk this weekend over here in England so- they’re still going. That’s good as in 2007 I had tickets to see them and they cancelled and it looked like they were done, then in 2010 I had tickets to see them in what was supposedly their last ever run of shows.
The reality is it’s somehow been 16 years since the release of their last album, their setlists are essentially a greatest hits mash up of Lechuza and their self-titled debut. So what’s happened musically in that decade and a half?
Not a whole lot despite promises of a follow up album over ten years ago but last year did see the release of a new EP! Cre.ep came out with minimal fuss towards the end of last year and it sounds exactly like you’d hope.
Spooky Action At A Distance “your song is stuck in my head” Will sings repeatedly sticking it very firmly in your head, the music is typically Fenix*TX and thankfully gives us something new for our itunes playlists dedicated to the band.
Church And State is a more mellow bluesy outing which every now and then they veered towards back in the day and were probably the more accessible tracks back then and that’s probably the case here too. It fits nicely with a lot of their catalog but
Bending Over Backwards is classic Fenix*TX easily fileable alonside Everything’s My Fault, Flight 101, Minimum Wage. What a return to form this track is, they still got it.
One thing people probably gloss over on their earlier works is how polished they were, particularly under the circumstances and the genre which it was hitting. Here it’s a lot more all out in the vein of their modern protegees, Neck Deep, Modern Baseball and Wonder Years.
Get Loose is as heavy as this EP gets but nowhere near the Beating a Dead Horse category of heft. I Don’t Know What To Say finishes off this brief comeback but I’d say a quality 20 minute EP with 5 solid tracks on is preferable to a full album with some misses on. It’s so good to hear these guys again, knowing that they could fight responsibilities, disillusionment, parentage, age and rock up like they’d never been away. Welcome back guys.