CD Review: Felix Sarco
By Matt Zebrowski

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that I personally know Gavin Robb, the band coordinator of Felix Sarco, and consider him to be a stand-up guy. That, however, has nothing to do with how much I enjoy his band. I am, admittedly, a huge fan, and I am about to give them an immensely favorable review, but if I said I went into my first encounter with Felix Sarco with a completely open mind, I would be lying.

See, I've had friends in bands before, and the majority of these experiences have led me to expect mediocrity at best. When friends invite me to see their bands, I usually view it as taking one for the proverbial team, a sort of act of charity, because I would expect the same from them, no matter how bad my band happened to be. So, if anything, my knowing Gavin actually put the band in a worse position than they would be in if they were all complete strangers. The unfortunate truth is that most of my friends' bands have sucked so much that these guys were going to have to fight uphill to get me to like them.

The crazy part is, they actually succeeded. By the end of the second song of their set the first time I saw them, my skepticism had been entirely put to rest. It's almost weird for me to think of Felix Sarco as "Gavin's band," or even as a local band, because with the NEPA scene being deluged with skeezy cover bands or the "original" music of bands who rip off Green Album-era Weezer, a band this unique is a true anomaly.

And Felix Sarco's new self-titled CD is every bit as spectacular as their live show. It channels everything good and righteous that has happened in experimental rock in the past few decades, with the most obvious benchmarks, in my opinion at least, being the Mars Volta minus the salsa riffs and Faith No More. But there's a bit of Mindless Self Indulgence in songs like "One For the Earth Girls," and even a bit of Pink Floyd in songs like "Pet Shop" and "Chester."

Despite rocking so disgustingly well, though, Felix Sarco obviously don't take themselves too seriously. Tracks like "Self Image" hyperbolizes the, well, self-image of wannabe demagogues in rock bands, and the tongue-in-cheek disco-pop of standout track "Hawks '06" parodies the derivative and seemingly omnipresent emphasis on dancy-ness in current indie music. Felix Sarco always seems to be as much poking fun at rock and roll as they are contributing to it, to the point where you almost don't know whether or not it's okay to even genuinely like these songs unironically because the very purpose of them just may be to mock you if you do.

This CD, which, I must add, is self-mastered and self-produced, is full of genuinely great local music that pushes boundaries while simultaneously making fun of everything you hate about the pretentious hipster folk that tend to go for this sort of thing. Screw the movie theater; this CD and the band who made it just may be the best things to happen to the Wilkes-Barre area in years. And, I kid you not, it costs just two dollars, only one-fifth of what you'd pay for the Swims' or Okay Paddy's or any other local band that isn't half this good's newest album. Experimental, funny, and, apparently, humble, Felix Sarco have made a fine album. You'd be crazy to pass it up.

Grade: A+