Today, we look at the music that influenced the militaristic combative psych-punk of Fat White Family. Starting off with lead single Whitest Boy on the Beach from Fat White Family's new album Songs for Our Mothers, we then included the earliest influences on the band: the anarcho-punk of Crass, the street poetry and urban rambling of Mark E. Smith and the Fall, the nihilist psych of Butthole Surfers, the hate country of Country Teasers, and the garage spew of the Gun Club. But Fat White Family has diversified on Songs for Our Mothers, with a heavier emphasis on melody and songcraft. There is the psychedelic shimmies of the 13th Floor Elevators. Lias admitted to me a fondness for Donna Summer. Much of the album explores the volatility that created the beautiful songs of Ike and Tina Turner. A motorik rhythm propels the record, much like krautrock of bands like Neu. And I also detected a heavy Devo influence on this band, in the oft-kilter anthemic passages. Like their mates in Sleaford Mods, Fat White Family is a thoroughly independent act that has the potential for massive success.
Playlist by Adam Lehrer