The Fastbacks: Bike, Toy, Gift, Clock

Almost twenty years ago, August 19th 1991*, I saw The Fastbacks hand Fugazi their ass. The Fastbacks showed the lords of Dischord, who, in all fairness did spend the night in riot control mode, how fresh, alive and thrilling a long-standing punk band could sound. There, in the stultifying confines of a North Vancouver rec center, they outshined the headliners (who'd earned their legend as a locomotive live act with sweat, blood and phlegm) by reeling off one unheard hit after another. After that, I tried to cram their entire history (12"'s, 7"'s, CD re-issues etc.) into one, rainy fall and winter. Never regretted a note of it.

Just to get you started here's the FBX (Kurt Bloch, Kim Warnick, Lulu Gargiulo* plus a drummer, any drummer***) playing live. This show from 1988, lays out the twin-female-vocal pop onslaught backed by BIG ROCK guitars sound ("The Runaways join Cheap Trick and cover Buzzcocks songs" kinda approximates it) that the band would perfect over the next twenty years while ignoring the fashions of each day.


Bike, Toy, Gift, Clock link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, give us you take on the Fastbacks and let us know if you wanna hear more because there is a LOT of out-of-print material floating around!!

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* Also on the Narduar-curated bill: Me Mom and Morgantaler and the Smugglers.

* Lulu Gargiulo was on hiatus during this period.

** Yes, at one point it was future G N' R man, Duff McKegan