"Spoil + Destroy" by Fox Face, released Nov. 3, 2017, by Dirtnap Records.
Fox Face is a Milwaukee quartet with attitude to spare – thankfully. With their just-released album Spoil + Destroy, the group provides a welcome soundtrack to counter our current climate of seeming collapse of both social and political norms. (It came at the right time for this particular garage rocker, who’s feeling disillusioned by much of what is taking place in the world.) Taking on misogynists and science deniers with a blast of often furious and cathartic guitars, Fox Face generates enough energy to frizzle fry any dicks trying to get in the way of fairness or even the existence of basic facts.
The band will celebrate the album’s release with a Madison release show Friday, Nov. 17, at Mickey’s Tavern (Note: The show was moved from the North Street Cabaret recently). Opening are Madison punkers No Hoax and Cool Building, with showtime set for 10 p.m.
The current incarnation of Fox Face came together gradually over the past few years. Lindsay DeGroot and Lydia Washechek started playing together, working on songs written by DeGroot. Eventually bassist Mary Hickey joined the fold, freeing DeGroot to add lead guitar along with her lead vocals. The final piece of the group was the addition of drummer Christopher Capelle, who joined before recording of Spoil + Destroy began (a previous 7-inch features a different drummer). If a Milwaukee music scene family tree of the first couple decades of the 2000s is ever created, you will find these four intersecting in various bands of recent years; Madison clubgoers will recognize members of bands such as Static Eyes, The Midwest Beat and The Olives.
Record store browsers looking to figure out the album’s themes would get some clear hints from song titles such as “Clever Girl,” “Nasty Woman” and “I Believe in Science.” Those succinct names represent missives as direct and fiery as the music accompanying them. Feminist theory even informs the album title, as explained in the liner notes: “Spoil and destroy” is a phrase spotted in a manual for witch hunters.
But I don’t want to lead the reader into thinking this is all about politics; there’s much more here to love than dissections of science deniers or gender politics. First off, it just flat out cooks. Spoil + Destroy is the best garage punk record I’ve heard this year. Even better, an aura of the mystical envelops the proceedings. The music often has a spooky vibe, even during clear-eyed takedowns of various targets. And there’s room for a Britney Spears reinvention (“Toxic”).
On a side note: Spoil + Destroy also marks a milestone for the Madison music scene, as it is the first full-length release from Dirtnap Records since the label relocated here over the summer. Monroe native Ken Cheppaikode formed the label in the late ‘90s on the West Coast, and for many years it has been based in Portland, Oregon. Happily for Madison music fans, Cheppaikode moved back to the Badger State this summer, and brought along with him the long-running punk label -- home of bands such as Mind Spiders, Bad Sports, White Wires and many others.
Keeping with the local theme, the album was recorded at MotorCo Studio, aka the north side recording facility run by Kyle Urban (Rocket Bureau, The Motorz). And the lacquers to make the LPs were cut at Lucky Lacquers in Middleton, which is run by Dave Eck, another Midwest native who returned from the West Coast a couple years back.
It all adds up to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite releases of 2017. I’ve been listening to it over and over the last couple weeks, and it just gets better with every spin. (Dirtnap ZZZ-151, 2017)
