THE FENWICKS: eudaimonia

The Fenwicks

eudaimonia

© 2000 Flip-Dog Discs (724101802621)

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Afro-Celtic Yiddish Ska as played by the world's greatest and only ska-funk-folk-punk amalgamation.

tracks

1 You, Me and Heresy
2 Man First
3 What the Hammer
4 Can You Tell Me
5 Chava
6 Kafka's Ax
7 Under the Thorns
8 This Is The Song
9 Your Life
10 Eulogy for a Parasite
11 Dressed to Brood
12 Burning Numbers
13 Desert Rat
14 Unlisted Mystery Track #1
15 Unlisted Mystery Track #2
16 Unlisted Mystery Track #3
17 Unlisted Mystery Track #4

notes

"The Fenwicks are a twisted yet eloquent fusion....impossible to forget, and
with a story the producer's of VH-1's "Behind The Music" would slaver over."
- Mark Faulkner, Florida Times Union

So, just what are THE FENWICKS?

The Fenwicks, are a 10-piece "Afro-Celtic Yiddish Ska" band guaranteed
to make you giggle and sweat. Imagine Bob Marley being molested by The
Marx Brothers, and there you pretty much have it. Insanely enough, The Fenwicks were first formed when Lynyrd Skynyrd's drummer Artimus Pyle, discovered Steven Schub singing for a punk band called "Jew2" in Jerusalem Israel, and decided to fly Schub and his song-writing partner, guitarist Jim Corrieri, to Jacksonville Florida. Within 72 hours, (and with a mere 3 rehearsals), The Fenwicks played their now almost legendary first show: opening for Foreigner and Billy Squier, in front of 8,000 confused classic rock fans. Listening to The Fenwicks’ cockamamie combination of ska, funk, folk and punk, and watching the band's nutty, nearly vaudevillian stage show, those Foreigner fans had no idea what to make of 'em. Over ten years, 3 CDs (on 3 different record labels), and umpteen national tours later, much of the world still doesn't. But tens of thousands of Fen-heads and 'Wick-heads world-wide like it that way! With a hard-earned (and hard-core) fan base, stretching literally from Baghdad (where soldiers have been cranking The Fenwicks in Saddam's former Presidential Palace) to Jerusalem, Sweden, Jersey and Hollywood, The Fenwicks have been able to carve out a happy, if subterranean, existence for themselves as underground underdogs, and one of the progenitors and instigators of 3rd Wave Ska.

Some Highlights from Fenwick History:

-Cover story in Billboard magazine upon signing a record deal with (now
defunct) record label Guitar Recordings, and a publishing deal with
Cherry Lane.

-Playing an unheard of 32 gigs in 31 days, each at a different venue in
New York City.

-The Fenwicks' debut CD "Member of No Tribe" charts in the Top 100 on
the CMJ radio charts, with airplay on over 200 college radio stations.

-The Fenwicks tour nationally as the opening act for Two Tone Ska
legends The Selecter.

-Singer Steven Schub, and The Fenwicks, star in the Sony Pictures
Classics film "Caught” directed by indie film icon Robert M. Young.
Entertainment Weekly says: “Steven Schub is hypnotically intense, an
electrifying debut.”

- Academy Award nominated director Bennett Miller (“Capote”) directs
The Fenwicks first video for the song “Another Deadly Mother”. "Another Deadly Mother".

-Academy Award winning actor (and former college room-mate of Schub and Corrieri)
Philip Seymour Hoffman records and sings with The Fenwicks.

-2001. The Fenwicks release their self-produced CD “eudaimonia” on
their very own record label Flip-Dog Discs to national critical
acclaim. Dishwalla lead singer J.R. Richards calls it, “One of the best
three albums of 2001”

-The Fenwicks play Town Hall on Broadway in New York City as part of
the 2002 Toyota Comedy Festival, alongside Jon Stewart, Colin Quinn,
and Lewis Black. The next night The Fenwicks play a sold-out live show
at Arlene Grocery on the Lower East Side, and record and release the
concert, as a free download, on The Fenwicks’ website. Due to
overwhelming demand The Fenwicks are ultimately forced to release a
live CD of the concert, 2003’s “Truth & Memory”. CMJ New Music Report
says: “Lace up your dancing shoes, this album is going to light a fire
under your seat!”

-The Ayn Rand Institute gets wind of The Fenwicks' philosophical lyrics
and asks the band to play at its 2003 University of Southern California
Philosophy Conference.

-2004. The Fenwicks liberate Baghdad. Citing The Fenwicks’
pro-Individualist lyrics, U.S. Navy Journalist Joseph Kane reports on
The Fenwicks’ CDs being played, and Fenwick “Member of No Tribe”
T-shirts being worn, by off-duty U.S. soldiers, in and around Saddam
Hussein’s (former) Presidential Palace.

-In 2005, The Fenwicks play all the dates on the Florida leg of the
Vans Warped Tour, and achieve what Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman
himself deems the“unprecedented”. The Fenwicks garner a front page,
“above the fold”, headline cover story in The Florida Times-Union,
feature stories in every city they play, live slots on the FOX and NBC
affiliate Morning Shows and single-handedly become one of “THE Buzz
Bands to see on Warped ‘05”.

-In 2006, Fenwick frontman Steven Schub stars in the indie horror film
"Devil's Den" and The Fenwicks compose and perform the title track
"Devil's Den (Too Dumb to Die)".

-2007. Schub Guest Stars on the Season Premiere of the global hit show "24", and The Fenwicks' anti-Eminent Domain protest song "Preeminent Domain" becomes an anthem for the world renowned think tanks that argued the seminal case before the United States Supreme Court, the "Institute for Justice" and the "Castle Coalition".

-With the support of the Human Rights Foundation, The Fenwicks tour the East Coast as part of Big D and the Kids Table “Steady Riot” Fall Tour. In concert The Fenwicks cover The Special AKA's 1984 ska classic "Free Nelson Mandela" with the lyrics modified and now directed at Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Entitled "Free Venezuela" the song is an outright sing-a-long/dance-a-long hit.

-2008 Steven Schub stars as Zombie Hunter "Buddy Budjinski" in the film "Dozers", and The Fenwicks merry musical anthem for Secular Humanism "No One Is Coming" makes the soundtrack.

-The future? On the way, a brand new CD entitled “The Fenwicks: Gods & Monsters”, and more of the same, but even more so!!!

For More information, contact : Jonathan Boyer at JB Management (310) 205.0488

reviews

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  • A kick
    author: Alan Nitikman

    I didn't know what, exactly to expect and, now I've heard it, I still don't. The Fenwicks are a lot of fun and their love for music and for life comes through on every cut. Thanks, guys

  • author: CD Baby

    Afro-Celtic Yiddish Ska as played by the world's greatest and only ska-funk-folk-punk amalgamation.

  • Buy this CD!
    author: G. Murray Thomas

    What is this? Yiddish ska? From the opening cries of "L'chayim" over a hyper reggae beat, it is obvious that The Fenwicks are not a normal band. Blending punk, ska, pop and klezmer, they sound like something you'd hear at a mutant cross-cultural wedding. Despite their stylistic schizophrenia, The Fenwicks are a band with a message. "Eudaimonia", the title of the album, is defined (in the liner notes) as "1. The moral purpose of life: one's own happiness. 2. A state of fundamental enduring joy, which proceeds from the achievement of one's values." This theme is referred to again and again in the lyrics, in many guises. The message is to enjoy one's life, but not through a hedonistic pursuit of pleasures, but through honesty and integrity in love and joy. Again and again the songs ask you to live with integrity, love with sincerity, and act to make your life better. For the most part, this is not an album of deadly seriousness. The Fenwicks sing and perform with the joy they promote. The music is full of surprises and tasty touches, and the lyrics brim with little jokes and asides. The Fenwicks promote joy both in theory and in practice.

  • Fun! Fun! Impossible Fun!
    author: Northwest Monthly- David Buksh

    Every other band claims to defy categorization. The Fenwicks actually do.Bursting with a backbeat and primal moving energy that almost never happens on a disc,The Fenwicks have discovered some sort of new cerebral dance music.A thinking man's version of booty shakin' music.That doesn't explain everything about the Fenwicks though.You have to listen to the intricate little stories woven by Schub to fully appreciate this oddly unique mixture of word and rhythm.The Fenwicks are indeed a crazy idea that has gotten completely out of hand.Fun,fun,impossible fun.

  • Just plain incredible.
    author: Otis Magazine

    This is one album that we have been waiting a long time to get,and the thing cooks.The Fenwicks' music follows no set standards,they make their own.Every song is just as unpredictable as the next,and there are no low points to their creativity.This band reeks of talent.The beats are plain incredible,the songs aggressive and heady.The Fenwicks call themselves,"the world's greatest and only ska-funk-folk-punk amalgamtion".We'll give them that.

  • Listen,see,talk about,and buy The Fenwicks!You will be a better person!
    author: Ink 19- Jared Campbell

    The Fenwicks are a breath of fresh breath.Actually,you don't need to breathe,because they do it for you.Ska, funk,folk,acoustic,ah man,you name it they do it.And they don't dangle around about it neither.From catchy pop to polka-dotted cheer this disc will make even the modest nut sweat.Listen, see, talk about, and buy The Fenwicks.You will be a better person for it.

  • The music is dynamic and the lyrics dogmatic.
    author: Kerri Hampton-pyle

    Definitely check out this incredible CD if your mind, body and soul craves inspiration that can only be derived through music. If you like to dance, think, or groove, this is the CD for you. The music is dynamic and the lyrics dogmatic. For those of you who remember the early days of the Fenwick's, you will not be disappointed. The energy and chemistry of the Fenwick's remain alive and this is a good thing, a very good thing. Peace, Kerri

  • Can the ugliest album cover possibly sound so good
    author: Terravibes

    one wonders if this most god awful album cover was an intentional attempt at masking one of the best albums made? The production of this album was done very sharp and clean with full respect to all the spectrum of audible sound, good job for that, well i suppose to get critical, the low end could have been more pronounced, but i like boom boom.

  • author: Leslie Marini, Florida Exposure

    A heady mixture of brilliant and extreme original music-defies all expectations.

  • author: Neal Mirsky, Wdiz 110.3 Fm Orlando,fl

    The Fenwicks have got great songs and that's the bottom line. Their material is catchy, fun, full of humor and appealing to a wide audience. The Fenwicks are the real deal, an oasis in a desert of poseurs.

  • author: Rick Grant, First Coast Entertainer

    Aggressively confident and wonderfully eccentric...pathfinding inventiveness... the overall sound is percussion driven which effectively melds The Fenwicks' influences into a cohesive and forceful orchestration. The effect is stunning. This is the band that could bridge the gap between the fringe progressive movement and the mainstream charts. I've extolled The Fenwicks' virtues in print so many times, I'll have to invent new laudatory adjectives to describe them.

  • author: October Micha, Player's Magazine

    The Fenwicks have created a striking blend of unpredictable rock that's something akin to Bob Dylan doing heavy metal accompanied by Monty Python. This CD pounds with all the subtlety of a train crash, yet moves with the grace of synchronized swimmers in intricate cooperation. Expect anything and everything from the Fenwicks.

  • author: Maximum Rock 'n' Roll

    Man, these guys are fun! They mix folk ballads, manic ska, and steel drums with punk energy and passion. The result compels you to jump around your bedroom making stupid faces.

  • author: Kevin Roe, Sound Views

    This workaholic bunch of merry tunesters, churn out a quirky, angular mix of folk-rock, funk, ska and manic energy that's pulled along, kicking and screaming all the way, by Schub's satiric, hyperactive lead vocals. The combination really clicks for some high octane pop.

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