1.8.20 by Ryan Masteller
The year was 2005, and a bunch of upstart drummers and shouters called “Foot Village” for some reason dropped “World Fantasy” on Not Not Fun. Don’t worry, they’d all been around for a long time already at that point in other incarnations. People knew who they were.
The year was 2010. Crash Symbols re-released “World Fantasy” on cassette tape with a couple of appended tracks. Crash Symbols was an upstart label around that time. Nice way to start. This was catalog number 001.
The year was 2010 again. Some asshole that was ME figured out that the letters on the computer keyboard could be pressed to form digital words. ME began to write about music.
The year was 2012. ME had long since decided to branch out and start writing about new things, things that ME hadn’t heard before. In 2012, ME hadn’t heard Foot Village yet. ME took the leap of faith and wrote about “World Fantasy” on Crash Symbols.
God, ME was an idiot. I can’t stand ME from then.
Anyway, let’s skip to 2019, the PRESENT (which of course is fleeting and will be the past soon enough, so let’s not really worry about it). Deathbomb Arc, the record label owned and operated by Foot Village mainstay Brian Miller, has decided the time was ripe – RIPE – for “World Fantasy” re-see the cassette light of day. What’s amazing about this release is that it isn’t even a Cassette Store Day exclusive. And yet it still contains the original album plus EP and compilation tracks that were NEVER intended to be contained in one package.
And yet here they are!
I’ve been a huge Foot Village fan ever since the moment I stumbled through that Crash Symbols tape, whipping up a narrative to satisfy some sort of review criteria so I could publish without feeling foolish. Joke’s on me! But the four drummers/four shouters formula hasn’t aged a day, and the mass hysteria instigated by this tape has yet to peter out. Who can forget the magic of “Brazil,” the title track featuring Weirdo/Begeirdo, or “Where Ever the Fuck Arnold Schwarzenegger’s From”? Who can live without contributions from Pete Swanson or Captain Ahab?
I sure can’t.
So remind yourself how fun 2005 and 2010 and 2012 etc. were with the definitive “World Fantasy” document. You’ll thank me. Limited to friggin 40 copies.