Franks Got The Funk

Finally. This is the word I've been feeling for the past three days. I've wanted to write this blog post for ten months now. And I finally get the chance, cause they just simply hadn't released their album till now. Franks Got The Funk (Henceforth "FGTF") are a funk rock band from Madras, who got second place at SF'10. Their debut album "+he Nex+ Level" is out, and three (now four) tracks are up for streaming. And well, it's awesome.

The band is now five members strong:
Rajan Chelliah: Guitars/Backing Vocals
Shashank Vijay: Drums
Vikram Ashok.: Keyboards/Synth
Bjorn Surrao: Vocals/Guitars/Harmonica
Sajith Satya: Bass/Backing Vocals

And as is my custom, they can be seen here in left-to-right order.

The scary eyes is not my fault. That's all them.

The reasons for the band naming themselves Franks Got The Funk are mostly unclear, with only God and the band knowing who Mr. Frank is, and why or how exactly he came possess the aforementioned "Funk", but it appears as though the band is really proud of this Frank character, writing an entire song, and even naming their band over the issue. Although the insane keyboard work all over their songs has inspired theories that Frank may indeed be Vikram Ashok himself, this has not yet been officially confirmed by the band. 

This is another theory.

As I mentioned earlier, they've recently released their album, and following massive Facebook fan pressure to distribute the album beyond Madras, or to stream, they decided to stream three (now four) (and now five) of their songs online on Facebook, all of which are still stuck in my head following SF'10 (which was 10 months ago, as of today.). So, if your Facebook player is blocked by some sort of proxy server clusterfuck, tough shit for you. The tracks are:

1.) Franks Got The Funk

Eponymous track, 10 points if you got that earlier, 10 more if you can spell eponymous without spellcheck or a dictionary. Starts with a bassline and a drum intro, little while into the guitars and keys join, but the song really starts when Bjorn starts with the "Franks Got The Funk". Careful listening to the song reveals that lil' Frankie was walkin' down the street and trying to make some money, wherein he bamboozled the local populace by his incredible ownership of the "Funk". This is followed by some fantastic keyboard work, not just in that part, but all over the song. About five minutes of music, and not only do you now staunchly believe that Frank indeed does possess the Funk, but the fact is constantly reinforced by the song being stuck in your head for all eternity.

2.) Fast Song

This song is one of my favourite FGTF numbers, along with Old Man (which they released much later, you'll read about it below). Begins brilliantlly, keyboards top-notch again, drums following perfectly beat-by-beat. Vocals join about 35 seconds into it. Sweet, deep voice. Not easy to believe this guy is not more than 22. Chorus kicks in around 1:30, more upbeat than the verse. While the song itself is great, the highlight of the track comes around 5:10, with vocals screaming "This is a Fast Song", this is important, because the title hadn't already made that clear. But the whole self-referential thing, it's great. It's meta. Meta is good. 

3.) Dynamite

From what I understand, this seems like one of the better known FGTF songs, being used on their album teaser video and everything. Addictive keyboard opening. Addictive chorus, pure auditory pleasure from beginning to end. But, the real cumfest happens at 2:57, when suddenly all music stops and all you hear is the vocals singing the chorus, that's what real pleasure is like. I think moments like that are why the Hindu Gods (all other Gods are tier 2) gave us the sense of hearing. 

4.) Cop Chase
This is the latest of their songs to come up on their Facebook page. Honestly, it makes life so much easier for me, having to write the album review in steps, cause I generally do a song-by-song thing (the first three were done first, this is added later). This song is different from the others in the sense that the keyboards take kind of a backseat, the guitar's making the main riff here. That's always good, it's a deviation from something I complained about earlier (chronologically, structurally the complain is still to come, in the paragraph after next). It's a cool song, there's something about being told in a slick voice that the protagonist in the song, Frank (name changed to protect identity) is "too sly for you", that almost makes you say "Yeah, that's probably true". You can either credit that to Bjorn's voice, or to the fact that nobody really uses the word sly for himself  in a song since Snoop Dogg, but then we believe everything Snoop Dogg says anyway.


5.) Old Man
This is my absolute favourite song by FGTF, and right from the beginning it's easy to see why. The keyboard work is insane, mixed with some great rhythms on the guitar, and perfect drumming. It's like if the keyboards themselves could be the chorus, and it's great when catchy instrumental riffage can do that. But the keys in this song are dangerous, they can really really get stuck in your head. I mean I still remember the song from having heard it just twice at SF'10. 2:46 brings a little break, with Bjorn using spoken word in a PSA voice, while you can hear chopper sounds in the background and rolling drums. Great effect.

From my constant praise, it may seem like it's a band that has achieved perfection, but there's quite some stuff lacking in the material. For example, one: the recorded stuff cannot nearly create the audio-visual-gangrape their live performances does. Two: it doesn't seem like the guitars or the bass are putting in much effort, and are relying too much on the keyboards for the melody, and relegating themselves to the background rhythm sections, and while I agree that "Mr.-Vikram-On-The-Keys" is more than capable of handling leads on his own, I think we as a society need the guitars to do more than just provide rhythms. Three: it may have been the rampant alcohol and drug abuse, but I believe when I saw them at SF'10, Frank had a little bit more Funk, but then again, it could also have been the subsequent line-up change.

Anyway, they have two more songs on Reverbnation, called “Insane Mumbojumbo” and “Who Caught The Bull By Its Udders” that are both live recordings, so the production sucks ass, and the band doesn't even play them any more. But nobody can stop you from checking them out right? Cause they're pretty good, minus the sound quality, of course.

General Links:

Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/franksgotthefunk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fgtf.music

Facebook Music Player: https://www.facebook.com/fgtf.music?sk=app_108468622525037

Bjorn's solo Reverbnation page: http://www.reverbnation.com/bjornsurrao (If you like the guy's voice. He's done a couple of jazz numbers, rough takes.)