Fart Fest – Fart Sounds - Over 1000 Farts (1 Hour)

Self-released

Every artist has to start somewhere, and while most musicians begin their career with a demo or a single, it takes unparalleled vision, confidence, and ambition to release an hour-long collection as your debut, but that’s precisely what Fart Fest did with Fart Sounds - Over 1000 Farts (1 Hour). Hidden behind the sickly green mushroom cloud cover art (Brat, anyone?) lies a one-hour and one-second odyssey that promises over one thousand unique farts. There’s an obvious comparison to be made here to Sleep’s Dopesmoker, the landmark stoner rock record comprised entirely of one hour-long riff, but while it took the stoner rock titans six years into their career to create their 60-minute masterpiece, Fart Fest impressively managed to do that on their debut. 

The group’s sophomore album, Fart Sounds - Over 2000 Farts (2 Hours), offered a tantalizing promise on paper but, in reality, suffers from too much of a good thing. Even down to the repetitive cover art, it became clear that Fart Fest rushed in with too little inspiration and not enough material on their second release, merely offering more of the same. In the end, Fart Sounds - Over 2000 Farts (2 Hours) suffers many of the ills that befall a band when trying to make a follow-up to their first success. You know what they say, “You have your whole life to record your first hour-long collection of fart sound effects and then six months to record your second.”

Luckily, the unimaginative approach on Fart Fest’s sophomore record doesn’t detract from their debut, and the streams reflect that. With exactly 9,914,930 streams at the time of publication, it’s clear that Fart Fest have earned their place in the pantheon of scatological streamers, far surpassing the monthly listeners of Fart Sounds as well as Fart Sound Effects, trailing only behind Poopy Man, whose hits like “Poo Bum Poo Bum” offer a more commercial pop-oriented alternative to Fart Fest’s heady hour-long expedition. Even as Fart Fest explored seemingly fertile ground on * deep fart sounds * and * farts with reverb *, I always find myself reaching for the group’s debut because that is the original formula. That is the album that soundtracked late nights in college, got me through painful breakups, and scored countless carefree drives with the windows down, heading anywhere but here. Thank you, Fart Fest, for breaking wind, passing gas, and cutting the cheese. I’m forever in your debt.