SXSW 2013 Records

FIDLAR

Imagine the Black Lips at their most juvenile, or the 13th Floor Elevators huffing paint instead of dropping acid. That's FIDLAR in a shitty pill, the L.A. skate-punk outfit embodying its namesake acronym: "Fuck It, Dog, Life's a Risk." The quartet's self-titled debut offers one cheap thrill after another – short, crude, and entirely self-explanatory (see "Wake Bake Skate" and "Stoked and Broke"). The chorus to "Cheap Beer" is basically just a series of shouted exclamations ("I! Drink! Cheap! Beer! So! What! Fuck! You!"), but it's as instantly memorable as Queens of the Stone Age's "Feel Good Hit of the Summer." What FIDLAR lacks in subtlety, it more than accounts for with blistering surf intensity and wicked hooks, creating a raucous party soundtrack that sticks with you well after the contact high fades. Yet closer "Cocaine," and even more so the ensuing secret song, prove there's actually more at work than what's let on, building off Jackson Browne's classic while upping the ante. (10pm, Clive Bar; Sat., 10:15pm, Hotel Vegas)