AN ALL OUT FUN ASSAULT

I’m gonna tell you what I know: IFIHADAHIFI has been around about ten years or so, but I’ve only gotten around to hearing them in the past two. I saw them for the first time last summer at Cactus Club when they headlined a show with their Latest Flame Records label mates Police Teeth and Waxeater. My wife Valerie liked their show, and she isn’t even a rocker. In fact, if I were to play some IFIHADAHIFI at MAXIMUM CRANK while driving around with her the truck, I’m certain she’d jump out. They do sound like demolition experts (with giant amplifiers) from outer space on laughing gas, and that sounds like a pretty good time, right? That’s just on a recording though, and you can’t SEE them going apeshit with yer EYES on a record, but when you see them going apeshit in a club (with yer eyes) that’s some kinda fun, and Val (a black belt-level expert in fun) recognized that about the band straight away. They made her smile, and they made a filling pop out of my tooth (true story).

So IFIHADAHIFI called this eepee Nada Surf cuz Nada Surf called one of their elpeez (or was it an eepee? I dunno…) IFIHADAHIFI (got that?) and you know what? It doesn’t sound like anything else you’ve heard or will hear about. People who write about music don’t write about THIS KIND of music anymore, and hardly anyone bothers to raise this much of a hot sonic mess. Noise is a dying language.

IFIHADAHIFI, they don’t play their instruments, they beat the shit out of them. These tracks are unhinged. Start with “We Fiddle, You Burn.” Not only is that a funny title, but it’s a funny song aimed at (I think) the narcissistic futility of pajama blogging, and the band throws everything they have lying around into the track: handclaps, shouted choruses, toy laser guns, smashing drum rolls, THE WORKS. “X-13D” mentions Kenosha (YAY!), the (Mars) Cheese Castle, and a serving of top-secret-flavored Doritos served in a large tin-foil hat, all to the sound of off-trajectory satellites crashing into each other. That’s how Nada Surf rolls. It’s track after track of barely contained chaos. The greatest of all has to be “Arson, You Let Me Down,” which is a hysterically funny title, an impossibly intense and aggressive delivery, and the refrain “It’s A Shame And A Drag” will work it’s way into yer very own lexicon.

This eepee was supposed to come out late last year, but got tangled up in some legal hoohaa concerning retired professional wrestler “King” Harley Race and an unauthorized sample of Race placing a bounty on Rick Flair that the band used in the original version of the track, “Somebody Take The Damn Money.” If you can find a copy with the original, hang on to that, cuz Race just sounds colossal in it compared to the re-recorded version featuring “M-Dogg” Matt Cross.

In this age of market-research and one-balled bloggers, it’s nothing short of a miracle that a band like IFIHADAHIFI even exists. They’ve been around a long time, despite having been largely ignored (or unnoticed) by the music press, radio and such, but it doesn’t seem to matter to them. Nada Surf is a loud, joyful, crazy and inspired racket.

Plusandalsotoo: You can catch IFIHADAHIFI playing six new song’s written especially for Cedar Block’s Sexy Results at Turner Hall on Saturday, February 18. Particle physics and rock and roll! C’MON!