Tim Fite preview

Tim Fite
Lakeshore Theater, Chicago
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Tim Fite certainly isn’t the first artist to attack Western culture, though he has kept his hands and conscience relatively clean. Artists from The MC5 to The Clash to Rage Against The Machine have looked silly by espousing rebellion and pointing fingers at the rest of us while selling their art for profit — often from a major-label perch.

Fite refused to physically release last year’s searing consumerism manifesto, Over The Counter Culture, insisting anyone who wanted to hear it could download it free. He practically gave himself no choice with all its soapboxing, though time he could have spent cashing in was expended in the studio. Fite worked one year on Fair Ain’t Fair (Anti), his stylistically divergent but no-less-intense follow-up.

Off the bat, Fair Ain’t Fair continues in a similar vocal vein, but without the rhythmic diversity provided by Counter‘s hip-hop. In an increasingly carnivalesque atmosphere, Fite’s lyrics begin to come off as browbeating and, like Ozzie Guillén or mid-period Fugazi, you learn to tune him out. Not to discount his politics or acute wordplay, but the new album offers a new look into his musical psyche.

2005’s Gone Ain’t Gone mixed live instruments and samples — all allegedly culled from albums costing Fite $1 or less — and Counter used hip-hop as a symbolic base for his anti-violence/anti-materialism attacks. Despite their successes, their highly manicured blueprints offered little artistic insight apart from what Fite wanted you to know. Fair can be impenetrable, yet frequently lets you believe you’re coming away with something. True, it uses more obscure samples (Constantines, Needle), but, repurposed, they bend consistently to an angry master.

Adam Green headlines.

— Steve Forstneger

Click here to download Over The Counter Culture.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly