Tim Fite's 'Fair Ain't Fair' is weird and pretty
Earlier this week, the eccentric Tom Waits staged a YouTube press conference to announce his upcoming tour. It was a humorous bit of performance art from the veteran left-of-center artist.
While it generated plenty of press in the music world, the following day one of Waits' label-mates -- and an artist just as wonderfully weird -- released a brand-new album to significantly less fanfare. But Waits fans, and pop fans, and heck, even Public Enemy fans, may want to give Tim Fite a listen, an artist who has a penchant for some outlandish, sometimes childish visuals, and oddball, folksy melodies.
Last year, he gave away an album for free. His "Over the Counter Culture" was a sarcastic, hip-hop- influenced album, a working man lashing out at everything from supermarkets to war profiteering (the PE fans should start here).
"Fair Ain't Fair" is his third release, and the second one he's selling through Anti- Records, the adventurous imprint of Los Angeles-based Epitaph. It moves away from the activist rap of "Over the Counter Culture," and instead is a mix of laid-back samples, Fite's speak-sing vocals and a host of weird carnival sounds and loops.
Those who got hip to Fite on "Over the Counter Culture" will notice this album is more reflective, less of an unfiltered rant at the world around him. But those who didn't will need only to know that Fite has a gift for crafting simple melodies and an ability to bring a matter-of-fact sort of humor to everything he touches.
This is a man who can bring some laughs to a song about being dirt poor and consumerism. See "Fair Ain't Fair's" "More Clothes," which bounces along with some lazy-day whistling, almost toy-like guitars and some high school marching band horns. As Fite takes a look at those around him, he observes the following: "I think I need to make more dough so I can buy more clothes so I can look like them folks who buys clothes."
Or give a listen to "Yesterday's Garden," which begins with a lovely, trickling piano melody, and mixes it up with some cartoon-like whoops and clacks. It's orchestral pop with a playfully absurdist streak. Fite, who sings of working overtime to please the object of his affection, can't help himself from destroying her flowers with tire tracks.
The song seems to build to an apology, but the listener gets some yodeling instead.
But Fite is an artist best appreciated live. His concerts veer toward performance art, but don't roll your eyes. His visuals are hysterical additions to songs -- crayon-like drawings of unidentifiable monsters give way to a giant chorus of Fite's -- and they're multimedia additions that follow the melodies. Take a look at this teaser clip for "Fair Ain't Fair:"
His tour starts Saturday night in New York. Go.
Dates here. Cali kids: he'll be at the Troubadour in L.A. on May 21, and the Rickshaw Stop in S.F. on May 20.
Photo courtesy Anti- Records
bless you for writing the most spot on tim fite description EVA...without without dropping the 'quirky' bomb once!
Posted by: gina | May 08, 2008 at 09:33 AM