This article will be half an artist introduction and half a retraction of some previously published information on Sydney jack-of-all-loops Tim Fitz. I first encountered Fitzy via the Feral Media Summer EP, with his contribution No Rooms Tonight, and I wrote some nice things about him and his songwriting.
However, it was the context with which I was first introduced to his tunes that irked me a little – I loved the seasons EP’s because they were sonic explorations of how a certain season felt, and Fitz took the brief too literally, writing a song about a literal summer night out.
Tim Fitz’s latest masterpiece of pop poetry won’t leave a sour taste in your mouth, unless you go see him play Oxford Arts or something.
Listening to Tim outside this, let’s face it, pretty pretentious album is a whole other experience. A few months back, he was billed as the first support for Gang Of Youths, and was the first artist I ever saw at my now favourite venue The Newtown Social Club. Armed with a swag of instruments – a guitar slung over his shoulder, a synthesiser at his hips, a loop pedal at his feet and a Roland SPD-SX by his side (go buy one because they’re actually the best thing ever), he laid down one of the best half hour solo sets I’ve heard in a long time. I was not jealous of MT Warning, who had the incredibly tough job of following him on stage.
His latest track, Sour, was definitely the highlight of the performance, a poetic and apt description of the current situation of Sydney’s nightlife. If you’ve been listening to FBi at all this last week you’ll have heard this song and it’ll have stuck in your brain. The one liners are undeniably amazing (The Darlinghurst darlings – dreaming their weeks away has got to be the best) and live, the cheeky bastard replaced the last refrain with “That’s what you get when Newtown Social Club is a booze filled wasteland”. This spoke to me on so many levels, mostly because I was a good 10 beers down at this point.
The recorded version doesn’t have the emotion of what I remember of the live act – I got the feeling that Fitz’s sentiment was as snide as it was apathetic and defeated when he was up in the limelight, an emotion I’m all too familiar with living and trying to enjoy what nightlife we have.
The version we’ve all been hearing is a much more candy coated take on the idea, Tim’s tongue perhaps placed too firmly in his cheek, an almost dissonant sense of enjoyment permeating the track. Is Fitz the poet sitting on the sidelines, observing the booze filled wasteland from afar, or is he himself booze filled? It’s not clear, but hell, why should it matter. It’s a killer track.
This single comes ahead of some tour dates in August and September, yet to be officially confirmed, but don’t be surprised if you find Fitz hitting FBi Social, or even a Goodgod Small Club and Danceteria residency sometime in the very near future.
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