Fat Day | |
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Origin | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
Genres | Noise rock, indie rock, chimp rock |
Years active | 1992–2005 |
Labels | 100% Breakfast!, Methodist Leisure Inc., Donut Friends, Devour Records, HG Fact, Wabana, Ratfish, Load, Dark Beloved Cloud |
Associated acts | DQE, Debo Band, Exusamwa |
Members | Arik Grier Doug Demay Matt Pakulski Zak Sitter |
Fat Day was a Boston-based noisecore band. Formed in Cambridge, MA in 1992, they released a handful of LPs and several EPs on their own 100% Breakfast! label as well as many others. They are most famous for originating the ironic mustache.
The four members of Fat Day met in the early 1990s when they were DJs on the Record Hospital, a nightly program of [[punk rock}rock]] and indie rock aired on WHRB in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Doug Demay and Zak Sitter both played guitar in the short-lived band Mopar before dedicating their time to Fat Day. The band rented a small house in Somerville, Massachusetts (dubbed "Fat Day House") where they lived, practiced, recorded, ran a record label, and hosted shows for local and touring bands.
Fat Day toured the U.S. several times, as well as the UK and Ireland in 1997, and Japan in 1998. During the band's existence, they self-released three LPs and several EPs as well as an EP co-released with Donut Friends. Other labels that put out Fat Day records include Japan's HG Fact, Wabana, Ratfish, and the Japanese-American label Devour Records, which compiled a CD of Fat Day's first two albums. In 2002 'Fat Day 'IV came out on Douglass Wolk's Dark Beloved Cloud label, and 2004's Unf! Unf! was issued by Providence noise label Load Records. Fat Day also released split EPs with the Ohio bands Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and Harriet The Spy and the Japanese band Melt-Banana.
Fat Day's original inception as a standard guitar/bass/drums/vocals punk band has always been infused with a performance art aesthetic. They have been known to play dressed only in clear cellophane wrap or have vocalist Matt Pakulski locked inside a speaker cabinet for the entire duration of a live show. Their 1997 tour of the UK and Ireland featured a fifth member playing saxophone that drew comparisons to Captain Beefheart, and for their 1998 tour of the U.S and Japan the band built a set of oscillators that were activated by choreographed dances on four small trampolines. These homemade electronic instruments were later condensed into a more manageable helmet form that the band would wear and play songs on in the midst of their more guitar-based set.