Northeast Performer
December, 2006

Review by Len Sousa

Fancy Trash — Three Cheers For The Cheated
Recorded by Joshua Thayer at Brave Tiger Studio in Hadley, MA
Mixed by Dan Richardson at The Basement in Northampton, MA
Mastered by JJ, Golden Mastering in Ventura, CA

Whimsically self-described as “spazzy, folk-tinged, acoustic indie rock,” Fancy Trash do a surprisingly good job of characterizing their eclectic sound. Tunes routinely tick-tock around indie folk flack on Three Cheers For The Cheated and are the better for it. Rather than reel themselves in at any moment to reconsider what they’re playing, the group isn’t afraid to risk sounding like a camp sing-a-long or drinking diddy at any point in their 11-track release. It’s a strange line to tread, but it makes their music all the more worth listening to if only to hear where they might end up.

Lead singer Dave Houghton, whose voice often echoes the late Shannon Hoon’s of Blind Melon, provides the final push for the group, turning what would be simply an interesting indie folk band into a charismatic combination. As with any indie act worth their weight in music school credits, Fancy Trash features a trio of multi-instrumentalists. In addition to his voice, Houghton provides guitars, bouzoki, harmonica, and the banjo, while Joshua Thayer plays bass and dobro, and drummer Ben Laine handles all varieties of percussion.

Their assorted talents make the album’s clever instrumentation a delight, but songs like “Tulips,” “Lost In The Evening,” and “Any Agony” readily prove that the band can handle heady lyrics to match their impressive music. Houghton’s lyrics are touching without being melodramatic, and his delivery avoids preachiness with a Hank Williams flair.

Fancy Trash pulls off the trickiest recipe in modern music. They manage to stir their several influences together and boil them down into a unique indie soup, proving that the concoction can taste even sweeter than the original, erupting into “spazzy, folk-tinged, acoustic indie rock.” It’s always a threat when a band has a strong enough sense of themselves to aptly describe their sound better than most critics, but when a band can write and play this well, who needs critics?

(Nine Mile Records)