What is a Fay Wray?

Ben, Eli

I like Eli Reyes not because he looks like a cross between QOTSA’s Joey Castillo and Hurley from ‘Lost’… but because his band f*cking rocks.

It is certainly true that most local acts you catch in the wee hours of a Tuesday morning deep in the heart of the Bay’s Mission suck a distorted microphone. The Fay Wrays, on the other hand, make such crampy dens of din their holy sanctuary of melodic wail. The band – a clinched-teeth progcore duo from Fresno – excels at two things: making noise and making melody. When the two are one, as is clearly the case with nearly every song on their gargantuan debut, Reyes (the machine-gunning drummer) and Benji McEntee (the guy severing his vocal chords and the strings on his assaulted axe) come on like an ill-tempered Kyuss jacked on caffeine to within an inch of ATDI.

Weatherman

But enough up-ass smoke blowing, lest I get carried away and do something stupid – like incite a mosh-riot in my boss’s office, which, no lie, crossed my mind roughly 30 seconds into first listen of “When We Storm The Gates We Sing This Song.” F*ck yeah, you sing this song: loud, fast, with dexterity, with balls.

So, to answer my own question, a Fay Wray is a dangerous kind of awesome. I haven’t listened all the way through yet, but I’ve heard enough of act two Strange Confessor to know  “Scottish Lad” and “The Word” and “Weatherman” and all the other gut-kicking songs I haven’t heard in months, though know by heart, weren’t just flukes. The new tunes sound a little different in my head, which is to say, unlike the the rest of bullshit clatter white-noising its way into my cubicle.

Do yourself a favor and join the band’s fan page. Then listen to this. Loudly, please.

When We Storm The Gates We Sing This Song