[GUEST POST] FEDERATION X

Here we are. The end of the guest post series. We’re gonna close it out with another from Kasey Anderson. Incidentally, the blog My Aimz Is True posted a piece on Kasey’s album of covers, Way Out West, today.

So, as she says, this is Kasey Anderson week in the blogosphere.

I was lucky enough to watch Federation X mature before my very eyes, primarily on stage at the 3B Tavern (which they closed down for good December 31, 2005 with Bob Log III). At their inception, Fed X was a sort of hybrid of everything Northwest: Wipers, Gas Huffer, Mono Men, Karp, Mudhoney and this little-known band, Nirvana. Even in their earliest incarnation, Federation X managed to synthesize those bands without sounding like a retread of every band that sprang forth from a garage in Olympia.

As the band progressed, one thing became abundantly clear: no matter what they sounded like or which influences you might be able to pin down after listening a while, they were a really, really good band. Like unfair good. Living in Bellingham and watching countless bands spring up all over town, then watching Fed X play the 3B was like spending three months following a minor league ballclub and then watching Roy Halladay pitch. It became almost tough to appreciate them because I was so busy being furious that I didn’t get to see them play more often.

But the more I listened to Federation X, the more something started to dawn on me. Buried beneath the relentless sonic assault created by a drum set and two four-string guitars, there were these melodies that owed an undeniable debt to folk music. That’s what separated Fed X from equally loud but not nearly as satisfying bands: they wrote folk songs, they just wrote them differently. That probably shouldn’t have come as such a shock considering the band named their Estrus Recods debut American Folk Horror, but it stopped me in my tracks.

They followed up AFH with the Steve Albini-produced X Patriot, which grooved a bit more than AFH, but retained that same synthesis of those almost appalachian melodies with jagged guitars and a propulsive beat. It was a formula I have yet to see recreated with any success. I suppose in terms of comparison, if you sped up the Melvins, then let them cover Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads record, but told them to lay off of any extended antics.

The band’s 2005 release, Rally Day, was a sort of extension of X Patriot, driving slightly harder and leaning a bit more on melodies that, in their earliest forms, were solo piano tracks. No matter how well they covered the melodies with guitar and vocal harmonies or riffs that faintly echoed Sabbath, the melodies stood out perhaps more than on any of the band’s previous offerings. For somebody who grew up simultaneously on Harry Smith’s Anthology and Daydream Nation, it was a near-perfect combination.

Fed X hasn’t released a full-length album since Rally Day, but whether the band is defunct or on extended hiatus seems up for debate. I, for one, am going to hold out hope that they’ll be back for at least one more record and handful of shows. Until then, I’ve got the records.

Federation X – Southern Comfort (from American Folk Horror)
Federation X – Real American Kids with Real American ID’s (from X Patriot)
Federation X – Rally Day (from Rally Day)