Album Review: The Fanny Farts Stink Out The Darkroom

The Fanny Farts are from Christchurch and have gone from debut gig to debut album in an impressively short time, well under a year. They’ve gone for the ultracool option of having their debut be a live recording, laid down at the garden city’s beloved Darkroom, a local mainstay of culture and live original music since 2011. They’re a difficult band to genre-fy, settling on “comedy punk” or sometimes “junkcore” (blending disco, jazz, funk, and punk), with the emphasis hugely on the comedy.

First track Fart On Your Lunch borrows heavily, very heavily from War’s 1975 classic Low Rider, but then The Fanny Farts make no secret of the fact that they’ve stolen, pilfered, snaffled, and yoinked parts of their songs from all over the place. They would also like it made clear that they “do not condone the spoiling of food” with such shenanigans but are more than happy to ruminate on the notion through the power of song. Vocalist and Trumpeter (both literally and figuratively) Ben suggests his farts are “A tasty sound, like a Beastie Boys song”, a comparison which as a die-hard Beastie Boys fan, I take mild but good natured umbrage at.

Continuing in the scatalogical vein, Taking A Shit (from the creativity of guitarist Harry) has the drive and feel of a ZZ Top song, a tight and solid rhythm section with a grunty classic rock riff. Out of respect to ZZ Top, I’ll state categorically that all comparisons end there. Lyrically, it’s precisely as the title suggests. Rounding out the “poo” part of the set/album is Put The Toilet Seat Down, “One for the ladies”. It kicks off with a tasty walking-style line from bassist Sam, and follows a basic 12-bar Blues structure, erupting into a more punk flavour at around the 60 second mark for an instrumental section, eventually devolving into a chaotic ending.

Track 4 is Prelude To A Love Song, a brief spoken introduction to, and explanation of the track to follow. Don’t get lulled into an expectation of lovey-doveyness though, this is The Fanny Farts we’re talking about… A Love Song I Borrowed From KBW is the song in question. I was quite a fan of ol’ Kevin Bloody Wilson, back in the day… well, until I was about fifteen, anyway. So I recognized the source material straight away, in this piece that sings of an episode of oral pleasuring gone awry… or should that be gone awr-eye? NomNomNom is based almost entirely upon Tom Petty’s You Don’t Know How It Feels, with a small tip of the hat to Steve Miller Band’s The Joker, and describes drummer Lily’s transition from vegetarian to pescatarian… I can’t quite tell if there’s some innuendo in there, or whether it genuinely is simply about food. Lily The Pimp is mostly just stolen riffery and lyrics from Frank Zappa’s Willie The Pimp, with the titular character renamed for the aforementioned fish-loving drummer and coming in at a duration roughly quarter that of the original.

In Dogbox, straight-up funk underpins a tale of woe, about subjecting a loving wife to selfish drunken antics, earning the protagonist a well-deserved residence in the proverbial dogbox. At least he has sufficient self-awareness to admit that he brought it all upon himself. Surfin’ Bird is a modern and comedic high-energy take on The Trashmen’s 1963 hit. 60-odd years down the line, and Bird is most definitely still the word. Punk Rock Raps is pure punk mayhem, the lyrics screamed in a deliberate attempt to disguise their offensiveness. Ketamine binges, vomiting in pub toilets, foot-jobs, and cuckolds all get a mention. Seek out the full lyrics if you dare… and have a strong enough stomach.

And then… Pity Fuck. An ode to Family Guy’s Meg Griffin, written as a deliberate attempt to be offensive. It’s even introduced with an apology to any women in the audience. A musical mish-mash of funk and punk, and a fitting end to an album of comedic filth.

The Fanny Farts Stink Out The Darkroom and its lyrics are available on Bandcamp. Give yourself a chuckle or six.