EP Review: Bummin' Cigs Off Minors by Fiesta Forte
By: Mustafa Abubaker
Originally published January 17, 2020, by Plasma Magazine
The new Fiesta Forte album Bummin’ Cigs Off Minors is some serious headbanging music. Made up of Gentry Pruett (bass/backing vox), Zach Johnston(guitar/vox), Zach Dismer(guitar/vox), and Jacob Miles(drums). This band’s — from Saint Simons Island, Georgia — music is a vehicle for repurposing and repackaging the early 2000s emo wave and turning it into something simultaneous more mature and more humorous. Their unique take on the genre feels like it could stand the test of time.
Bummin’ Cigs Off Minors is all thrash and surf until the third track, “Tube Sock Phenomenon,” kicks in with a glorious 24-second reprieve from the layered rock sounds. The title of the song itself bleeds a very niche sartorial nostalgia, and yet it’s the filtered vocals that feel welcoming, many years after emo punk had its heyday in mainstream American radio. The rest of the song plays out and could have soundtracked a scene from the cult classic film Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. By the fourth track, “Palm Coast,” things settle and the vocals exercise patience while enjoying a kind of clarity as well.
It’s on the next track “Lo Siento, I’m Leaving,” where the vocals embrace abrasion — which works in the song’s favor, because the production work on the song is stellar. This genre has always been give and take. There is some Minus the Bear influence here. Fiesta Forte comes dangerously close to soundtracking a night drive. I am sold on the band’s versatility and liberalism on The National-esque track “No Time for Tacos.” “Good Time Jan,” finds the band making music about a woman again, and there’s even a soundbite from The Office in the middle of the song. My suspicion may be right! The band is full of film and television buffs; so full that, immediately following writing this review, I watched every movie referenced and alluded to in Bummin’ Cigs Off Minors. The band’s hidden agenda is unlocked: share the same taste in screen content or else. The song ends with a killer solo accented by the drums and a waning riff.
The penultimate song “Tugboat Tobey,” feels like a bar anthem, throwing beers back with the boys and pretending the night out is an episode of Cheers. The band is waving its flag here. They say no good story was ever told without alcohol’s involvement. The story Fiesta Forte is telling here is one of growth through relationships, airing out annoyances, and eventually coming to terms with a be-all, fuck all mentality moving forward, taking life as it comes.
The vocals here on “Whiskey Ginger,” the longest song on the album spanning nearly 5 minutes, gives way to another nod to Hollywood rounding out Bummin’ Cigs Off Minors. This time it comes from Alfred Pennyworth, stating, “Every year, I took a holiday. I went to Florence, there's this cafe, on the banks of the Arno. Every fine evening, I'd sit there and order a Fernet Branca. I had this fantasy, that I would look across the tables and I'd see you there, with a wife and maybe a couple of kids. You wouldn't say anything to me, nor me to you. But we'd both know that you'd made it, that you were happy.” Something tells me the band is working hard to manifest things into reality, and by taking this soundbite on to the end of their record, they may be well on their way.