The London-based band Fiction Plane is ready for take-off.
Everything Will Never Be Ok, Fiction Plane's debut album out March 11 on MCA records, is a bright and impassioned album with wrenching, witty lyrics, blazing guitar riffs, catchy melodies and crushing grooves. This diverse collection is a sure-fire hit and this band is going to have you jumping around in a concert pit very soon. (Take it from me, I couldn't even snap a decent picture of them because I was being swooshed around like a Hacky Sack in their swarming pit of new fans.)
Their live show is one of the band's strongest assets, due in part to singer and guitarist Joe Sumner—who really knows what it means to be a front man. Jumping around in his super psyched way and delivering fiery vocals, Sumner gets the crowd amped. He's joined by fellow Brits Dan Brown on bass and keyboards, Seton Daunt on guitar, and a bad ass drummer from our good ol' Indiana, Pete Wilhoit. Unlike some of the other artists out there, this band sounds just as good live, or even better, as they do on their album—which probably explains why they're already on a heavy touring schedule even though their album isn't out yet.
The CD starts off with a twanging guitar lick and the wailing vocals of Sumner on "Listen to My Babe" and then goes into the irresistible title track "Everything Will Never Be Ok," which is soon to be the anthem of the angst-ridden. Fiction Plane's political opinions can be heard throughout the album, especially on "Soldier Machismo," a song with thought-provoking questions and an anti-war message—which couldn't come at a more significant time in our history. They also have a little surprise at the end of the song "Wise," a hidden track that starts off with a beautiful ethereal melody and slips into a rocking sonic Sunami—don't miss it.
In keeping with their social consciousness, the band made sure their T-shirts weren't made in sweat shops; they teamed up with the Future Forest organization to figure out how much CO2 went into the production of their CD, and they've decided to restore the ecological balance by planting trees during their lifetime to reabsorb that amount of CO2. Yes, in the future there will even be a Fiction Plane forest. Let's just hope that there will be free outdoor concerts in that forest.
Go check out the band at their site www.fictionplane.com and definitely go see them live, they're probably landing in your hometown soon.
—Maria Lau
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