Fidlar by Alice Baxley

In the era of nepo babies, it would be great to say that for every Kardashian there’s a Robert Downey, Jr., but no. It’s no wonder people don’t typically like nepo babies for trading on familial connections in fields where less fortunate talents toil in obscurity or just wash out.

That said, it’s hard to grow up surrounded by awesome people and not have it rub off. Elvis and Max Kuehn, sons of SoCal punk legends T.S.O.L. keyboardist Greg Kuehn joined Zac Carper, son of famed surfboard designer John Carper, to form FIDLAR with bassist Brandon Schwartzel. And it’s a good thing that FIDLAR have united under the acronym for Fuck It Dude, Life’s A Risk — a skateboarding mantra to live by, and a good name for a band playing angry punk/surf/skate rock that cares not a whit about the opinions of others.

Every member of FIDLAR has side projects and other bands that also express their aggro feelings and artistic tendencies. “It’s weird when we get labeled these skater-partier-slacker punk kids,” Carper said in a record label bio. “We skated, we partied a lot, but we also worked our asses off.”

We should be thankful FIDLAR got a leg up in a world where everything is complicated, and genius can often go unrecognized. The drive these people have could be considered sociopathic in any other capacity. Could you imagine what would happen with that weaponized focus and intensity? That’s how an unrelenting world makes dictators.

So instead let’s bask in the afterglow of FIDLAR’s newest output, the “That’s Life” EP and the “Centipede” EP, not to mention the singles “Don’t Fuck With Us Vol. 2” and “Nookie,” all of which were released this year. A prolific crew of nepo-babies who have surpassed the productivity of their predecessors, and have certainly become a formidable entity on their own, FIDLAR are a lot of things but lost for ideas they are not.

FIDLAR and bed bug guru play Wednesday, September 27, 8pm at Gramps in Miami.

fidlar.komi.io ~ Tim Moffatt