fish narc May have Made the Best Rock Album of His Career

Ben Funkhouser spent his twenties helping invent something. His work with ThraxxHouse and GothBoiClique as fish narc helped define an era of SoundCloud rap, which is a real thing to have on your record. Then he got to his thirties and found that writing straight-ahead guitar rock felt unexpectedly right. “I spent all that time working on a new sub-genre,” he says, “and now I kind of just want to write songs that really feel comfortable and make sense to me.” Last year’s frog song was the first step. Uncle, out October 16 on K Records, is the full leap.

For the first time Funkhouser worked with a producer he didn’t already know: Alex Farrar, whose credits include MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Fiddlehead, and Archers of Loaf. The result is fuzzy, jangly, crunchy college rock that strikes an easy balance between early solo career Paul Westerberg and classic UK indie — music made with enough craft that it sounds effortlessly right. Lead single “Much Less Me” is the clearest proof of that. It is driving and melodic and immediately familiar in the best possible way.

The title is tongue in cheek: saying uncle, giving up. But the record is anything but. It’s about reflecting on the last ten years, coping with expectations, dealing with aging, and trusting what feels right after a long time of figuring it out. Funkhouser has record release shows in Los Angeles and New York in late October and early November. Pre-order below.

Pre-order Uncle ↗

1“Untitled”

2“Much Less Me”

3“Emma”

4“Student Driver”

5“One Hand on the Sword”

6“In the Woods”

7“Big Dumb World”

8“Not to Guess”

9“Wouldn’t You Know”

10“Umtanum”

11“Yakima Canyon”