FIDLAR
L.A.’s FIDLAR are happily regressive – playing brain-dead beach punk that suggests the Germs or Hives at their most uproariously half-assed. The band’s name comes from the skateboarding maxim “Fuck It, Dog, Life’s a Risk,” and its
debut bursts with hot sludge and lazy slop-rock jags tied to titles like “Wake Bake Skate,” “Cheap Beer” and “Max Can’t Surf ” (reason: “He’s got no balance!”). Along with their blotto sense of humor, some warm California sun breaks through the stoner-thrash haze: “Gimme Something,” a chime-y gripe about a panhandling wastoid, is what Black Flag might’ve sounded like if they’d gone through a Bakersfield country phase.