The Fabulous Five - Call it an Evening

The Fabulous Five

Call it an Evenings
self-released; 2015

3.1 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Before I read anything about Call it an Evening by The Fabulous Five I thought it sounded like a bunch of young guys got together, put up a mic and hit record. Turns out that's pretty much what they did. I hesitate to call the songs “songs” at all. At its worst some of the parts will be completely annoying (such as a burp); as its best they can be somewhat comedic and border on the fringe of free jazz. 

I would skip the first track “Our Freeform Intro” entirely unless you want your ears to bleed. On the second track things start to sound like a deflated balloon. They almost find some kind of groove that sounds like a severely depressed marching band that is on the verge of suicide. “Walk Away” contains a mosey down the road country vibe with vocals. The song is mostly hi-hat and digital distortion. Moving on to “Our Freeform Jungle” which sounds like they are aggressively tapping on a couple boxes or an x-box while singing in a highly offensive cliche way that is associated with Native Americans. “Ukulele Interlude” is exactly what I thought except I would have titled the song “slightly out of tune Ukulele Interlude.”

“The Martino Theory” is a chaotic journey through the fifth level of hell while “I Love Your Face” is absolutely terrifying. “Our Freeform Improvisation” is almost listenable and sounds like the Chicago Art Ensemble at their that most drug-induced. 

They close with “Nathan Normal (In Four Parts)” which is an arduous sixteen-minute song. It seems as if the band was trying to tell a story about a kid named Nate but was obviously either about the psychedelic drug DMT or their own take on the Harry Potter series. Towards the end of the song it's obvious the trip has gone bad and is more or less a message that drugs can have terribly ominous consequences. 

​Theoretical scientists have said that multiple universes could possibly exist with infinite possibilities. If this is true then there is a universe out there where The Fabulous Five are no longer humans but are in fact breathing, walking ten-foot bananas and are selling out concerts at an alarming rate.

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