Les Savy Fav ( ) is an American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band based in New York City. Their style is influenced by

art punk Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spiri ...

and

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

. The group is known for the stage presence of lead singer Tim Harrington. The band is signed to

Frenchkiss Records Frenchkiss Records is an independent record label based in New York City. The label was started in 1999 by Syd Butler, bassist and founder of Les Savy Fav. The label's first purpose was to release Les Savy Fav's second album '' The Cat and The Co ...

, which is owned by the band's bassist, Syd Butler.

History

The group's original 1995 line-up all met while attending the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. Some of its members were classmates of

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

creator

Seth MacFarlane Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series ''Family Guy'' (since 1999) and ''The Orville'' (since 2017), and co-creator ...

. Live shows are punctuated by the antics of frontman Harrington, including interacting with audience members and on-stage wardrobe changes. The rest of the band continues to play as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Guitar player Gibb Slife left the band after their second LP. Drummer Mahoney was replaced by Harrison Haynes. The band started a planned hiatus in mid-2005, which led to speculation that they might have broken up, but Harrington confirmed that Les Savy Fav would return and indeed they did, playing a live performance at the British

All Tomorrow's Parties "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released on the group's 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Inspiration for the song came from Reed's observation of Andy Warh ...

festival in May 2007. Andrew Reuland joined the band in 2006 as the second guitar player. The band booked studio time in November of that year to record their fourth full-length album, ''

Let's Stay Friends ''Let's Stay Friends'' is the fourth full-length album by Les Savy Fav. It was released on September 18, 2007. The album was #5 in ''NME'' albums of the year list, #16 on ''Rolling Stone''s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007, and #44 on ''Pitchfork ...

'', which was released September 18, 2007. They performed "Patty Lee" live on ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

'' on January 31, 2008. Their song "Hold Onto Your Genre" is featured in the soundtrack to ''

MLB 2K7 ''Major League Baseball 2K7'' (or ''MLB 2K7'') is a Major League Baseball licensed baseball simulation video game developed by Kush Games and published by 2K Sports. Released on February 27, 2007, it is the only 2007 MLB licensed game available fo ...

'', as well as commercials for the game. Furthermore, their song "Raging in the Plague Age" is featured on an in-game radio station in

GTA IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', and the e ...

Bass player A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low br ...

Syd Butler is also the owner of

. Seth Jabour is also known for his work as an illustrator and

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

. Former drummer Pat Mahoney also played in

LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002 by James Murphy, co-founder of DFA Records. The band comprises Murphy (vocals, various instruments), Nancy Whang (synthesizer, keyboards, vocals), Pat Mahoney (dr ...

. The Derry/London based band Jetplane Landing included a song on their 2007 album ''

Backlash Cop ''Backlash Cop'' is the third full-length release from Northern Irish band, Jetplane Landing. Released in 2007 on the Smalltown America label it received mixed reviews. The Album makes many references to black American jazz musicians, notably on ...

'' entitled "Why Do They Never Play Les Savy Fav On The Radio?" The song "The Sweat Descends" appears in the commercial for the

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

movie, "Fire Breather" as well as the soundtrack for

College Hoops 2K7 ''College Hoops 2K7'' is an American college basketball video game initially released on November 20, 2006 for the Xbox and Xbox 360 and released later for the PlayStation 2 (December 11) and PlayStation 3 (March 13, 2007). It is the 5th installm ...

. The ''

True Blood ''True Blood'' is an American fantasy horror drama television series produced and created by Alan Ball. It is based on ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a series of novels by Charlaine Harris. A reboot is currently in development. The serie ...

'' episode 'Let's Get Out of Here' was named for the band's song, which is featured in the episode. In December 2011, the band co-curated the

"Nightmare Before Christmas" festival in Minehead, England alongside

Battles A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

and

Caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

. The song "The Equestrian" is featured on the soundtrack for NHL 2K8. Some of the band's members are now in the house band for

Late Night With Seth Meyers ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' is an American late-night news and political satire talk show hosted by Seth Meyers on NBC. The show premiered on February 24, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. Airing weeknights a ...

. In 2020, the band was booked to play at

Primavera Sound Primavera Sound (commonly referred to as simply Primavera) is an annual music festival held in Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain that takes place between the end of May and beginning of June. The first edition took place in 2001 in Poble Espany ...

's twentieth anniversary.

Musical style

Initially their music featured an abrasive sound fitting in the

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

genre and reminiscent of the music of

Fugazi Fugazi (; ) is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They are noted for their style-tr ...

and

Jawbox Jawbox is an American alternative rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in 1989 by J. Robbins (vocals/guitar), Kim Coletta (bass), and Adam Wade (drums). After the trio released the album '' Grippe'' in 1991, Bill Barbot (guitar/vocals) joi ...

. Later on their music became more

idiosyncratic An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person (though there are also other uses, see below). It can also mean an odd habit. The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be "quirk". Etymology The term "idiosyncr ...

shifting to a more radio-friendly sound close to that of befriended bands

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English Rock music, rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Loui ...

and Enon.

Kele Okereke Rowland Kelechukwu Okereke (born 13 October 1981), also known mononymously as Kele, is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Party. Early life Okere ...

of Bloc Party wrote of Les Savy Fav's influence on his band for an article in

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

in 2005 and members of Enon have contributed to several Les Savy Fav tracks.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' 3/5'' (1997, Self-Starter Foundation) * '' The Cat and the Cobra'' (1999,

/Self-Starter Foundation) * '' Go Forth'' (2001, Frenchkiss Records) * ''

'' (2007, Frenchkiss Records) * '' Root for Ruin'' (September 2010, Frenchkiss Records)

EPs

* '' Emor: Rome Upside Down'' (2000,

Southern Records Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin. The label is closel ...

)

Live albums

* '' After the Balls Drop'', (2008, Frenchkiss) (Digital-only release)

Compilations

* ''Repopulation Program'', Les Savy Fav contribute ''Raise Buildings''. (1996,

Load Records Load Records was an American experimental music-oriented independent record label based out of Providence, Rhode Island. "Load Records might possibly be in possession of the world's most challenging record roster," writes Mark Hensch of Thrash Pi ...

) * '' This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation'', Les Savy Fav contribute ''No Sleeves''. (2001,

Arena Rock Recording Co. Arena Rock Recording Company ("Arena Rock" or "ARRCO") is an independent record label based in Portland, Oregon. Albums are distributed by Redeye in the United States and Koch in Canada. Arena Rock was formed in 1995 in Brooklyn, New York, by ...

) * ''

Inches Measuring tape with inches The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to yard or of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelfth"), ...

'', a compilation of singles from 1995 to 2004 (2004, Frenchkiss; re-released 2008 on

Wichita Recordings Wichita Recordings is an independent record label located in London, founded in 2000 by Mark Bowen and Dick Green. Its most notable signees include Bloc Party, The Cribs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Yeah Yeah Ye ...

) * '' Warm & Scratchy'', Les Savy Fav contribute ''The Equestrian''. (2007,

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

)

Singles

* "Rodeo" (1997) * "Our Coastal Hymn" (1999) * "Reprobates Resume" (2001) * "Reformat (Dramatic Reading)" (2001) * "Obsessed with the Excess" (2003) * "Yawn, Yawn, Yawn" (2003) * "Hold On to Your Genre" (2004) * "Knowing How the World Works" (2004) * "The Sweat Descends" (2004) * "We'll Make a Lover of You" (2004) * "Accidental Deaths/Hit by Car" (2006) * "Raging in the Plague Age" (2006) * "What Would Wolves Do?" (2007) * "Patty Lee" (2008) * "Let's Get Out of Here" (2010) UK Sales No. 92

References

External links

Les Savy Fav @ French KissSubsite at Wichita RecordingsBiography
on VH1

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savy Fav Indie rock musical groups from Rhode Island American punk rock groups American noise rock music groups American art rock groups Musical groups established in 1995 American post-hardcore musical groups Post-punk revival music groups Musical groups from Providence, Rhode Island Wichita Recordings artists Frenchkiss Records artists Rhode Island School of Design alumni in music