Band: THE FRAOCH COLLECTIVE
Place of origin: Long Island, New York, USA
Genre: Alternative rock
Full Length: Oh, The Things We’ve Done
Label: Independent
Release date: April 1, 2019
In the summer of 2018 The Fraoch Collective released “Stockholm Sugar”, the first track from their debut album, as a single on Soundcloud. From that song I gathered they were a step apart and another step ahead of most Long Island bands. They look beneath middle class Island pleasantries and get to a darker reality; the addicts, the predators, the slightly disturbed, the psychologically scarred. All brought to the surface and presented to those who would rather see it buried, in a way that breaks the fourth wall between music and listener. Oh, The Things We’ve Done is in its own class and isn’t alternative, classic rock or proto-punk, though all are included in their formula. This is the first band to really take a chance and do something different since the last original bands appeared on the Island in the 90s making the scene unpredictable. I wonder what happened to all the talent that was part of those days, but The Fraoch Collective reopens those doors, validating the efforts of those bands to stand out. Ironic that they emerged from a cover band, giving us something that’s not all beaches and bar hopping. You’ve heard of NYC noir; Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Lydia Lunch. The Fraoch Collective is Long Island noir, drawing from the origins of underground, experimental, and alternative rock. They also draw from 50s postwar beat poetry and its forays into the human condition. There is accessibility here, but not through copying the same old formula. There is sexuality here, but its more implied through the vocals than the band’s image. Watch the promotional videos made for this album and you’ll see what I mean. Oh, The Things We’ve Done is like a beat poet’s journey from one city to the next. At each stop you meet someone with a tale to tell or a skeleton in the closet. Someone involved in a violent casual relationship to feel something rather than not feel at all, someone almost dangerously obsessed with a would-be partner from afar, someone searching the darkness of night for youth that was stolen but never again to find it, someone who found his life’s solace in alcohol. Everyone you meet in this journey is as much established by the music as the lyrics telling their tales. Each song has a different mood, which is important to the tales as much as making a point of the diversity of the album. If you like everything from Iggy Pop to Blondie to Black Sabbath to Alice In Chains you’ll find something that speaks to you, but the versatility of these songs are the beginning, not the end, of their appeal. -Dave Wolff
Track list:
1. Stockholm Sugar (Dawson/DelCielo/Gavitt)
Heather Dawson: Vocals
Gregg Gavitt: Guitars, bass, keyboards
Marc Del Cielo: Drums, percussion, backing vocals
2. Ideation (Dawson/DelCielo/Gavitt/Larkin)
Heather Dawson: Vocals
Gregg Gavitt: Guitars, bass, keyboards
Marc Del Cielo: Drums, percussion, backing vocals
Connor Larkin: Guitars
3. Welcome Our Overlords (Dawson/DelCielo/Gavitt/Larkin)
Gregg Gavitt: Guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals
Marc Del Cielo: Drums, percussion
Connor Larkin: Guitars, backing vocals
4. Rachel (Dawson/DelCielo/Gavitt/Larkin)
Heather Dawson: Vocals
Gregg Gavitt: Guitars, bass, keyboards
Marc Del Cielo: Drums, percussion, backing vocals
Connor Larkin: Backing vocals
5. The Price (Dawson/DelCielo/Gavitt)
Heather Dawson: Vocals
Gregg Gavitt: Guitars, bass, keyboards
Marc Del Cielo: Drums, percussion, backing vocals
6. Invanity (Dawson/DelCielo/Gavitt)
Heather Dawson: Vocals
Gregg Gavitt: Guitars, bass, keyboards
Marc Del Cielo: Drums, percussion, backing vocals
7. Ash and Sand (Dawson/DelCielo/Gavitt/Larkin)
Heather Dawson: Vocals
Gregg Gavitt: Guitars, bass, keyboards
Marc Del Cielo: Drums, percussion, guitar
Connor Larkin: Guitars
8. Stanley Crawled Into a Bottle (and he never came out)
(Corrigan)
Heather Dawson: Vocals
Marc Del Cielo: Guitar, drums, mandolin, vocals
Gregg Gavitt: Bass, backing vocals
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