Face to Face - Ignorance is Bliss (Lady Luck/Beyond, 1999)

Ignorance is Bliss was my first F2F album. They fell into the category that I had heard a lot about them, but never actually heard any song. I knew of someone in high school that won a chance to hang out with them after a show which I thought was an odd thing for a band to raffle off. They seemed too accessible to me which was maybe the reason I didn't seek them out sooner.

My official introduction to F2F was when a college buddy, Mitch (part of his last name actually), whose opinion on good punk rock I truly valued, told me that Jimmy Eat World and Face to Face were sharing a bill in Denver. I was heavily into JEW at the time and we bought tickets online to pick up at will call. I remember feeling like there were two distinctly different groups of fans at the show. First, were those sensitive, heart-on-their-sleeve, fans of the slow build there to see JEW, and the second were the hardcore punk fans who liked the hi-tempo snare beat with most songs clocking in under 2:00 there to see F2F. During JEW's opening set, I could sense the F2F fans making fun of the slow beats, artsy lyrics and drawn out 6-7:00 numbers. The stark contrast when Trevor Keith and F2F took the stage was not surprising, except for the few songs that seemed more developed and out of the ordinary from what I thought true punk was. After enjoying the show, I went to the merch table, waited in line and found that their new record, Ignorance is Bliss, which was released partially under their own label, Lady Luck, was only $5.

On first listen I was surprised, pleasantly, by what I had heard just like at the show. The high tempo snare of what I thought was "punk standard" was never my bag. I needed more melody and could stand to let the song build slowly and carry for a while longer if it felt right. This sound seemed to take pages from Bob Mould (more Sugar than Husker Du) with some heavy chorus both in the vocals and on the amps. The way they produced this record made me think the drummer, Pete Parada, was smashing the drums as hard as he could, something I loved. Everyone Hates a Know-it-all, Prodigal (linked here), Lost and Maybe Next Time were a few of the tracks that initially stood out, but the album came together as a whole for me later.

From hearing a few earlier F2F albums, I learned that this record was a departure from the norm and might have been the reason for the self-labelled release and cheap price. Maybe the band figured fans shouldn't complain about the shift in sound as much if they hardly paid for it. F2F's next record, released on Vagrant in 2000, was called Reactionary and I always wondered if it was in reaction to longtime F2F fans possible disappointment with Ignorance. It was more of what I was expecting when I thought or a punk band and a punk album, but by now I was hooked and maybe "understood" it a bit more. What I understood more than anything, was that I didn't know, or care about the definition of punk, or emo, or indie. There are only two genre's that mattered now - music I like, and music I don't.

"You need a little time/So you can get your head around your mind/If you don't know what you're looking for" - Prodigal