Fenix TX – Lechuza

I read this review and immediately created an account simply so I can offer my accolades. The review is spot on, including the "Song for Everyone" mention. "Threesome", "Katie W", "Phoebe Cates", and "Tearjerker" were staples for me growing up. I always felt this album was overlooked and highly underrated. You win the music review award today.

 

I dug this record at the time but now that we're 20 years removed, I think the correct bands were offered the ticket to minor stardom with only a few notable exceptions (such as Lucky Boys Confusion). Bands like Fenix TX just didn't stand out as much though this album showed a giant leap in terms of songwriting and maturation.

 

This band and album was the soundtrack to life in my teens.

I named my son after this band.

Great review, "Beating a dead horse" and "Something Bad is going to Happen" were sleeper hits on the album.

 

You're too kind! I'm thrilled you are able to join our community too!

 

This album takes me back. Yeah, for me, the extreme melodic highs of this album (Song for Everyone, Phoebe Cates, Threesome, and I really liked Abba Zabba as well) didn't contrast well with the darker, more metal tinged stuff. It always felt like two warring albums and I was never in the mood for both, so I would often find myself skipping tracks. But, yeah, the romantic, melancholy tinged Song for Everyone is as good as pop punk gets.

 

One of my all time favourites. Sensing because of MCA it would never see the light of day I decided to commission a one of a kind pressing; so pleased with how it turned out! Thought others might find it interesting. (Excuse the poor quality pics)

 

But I want it

 

This is so great! I also have a one of a kind pressing. But not nearly as cool

 

Where the shit are y’all making these and can I have one?

 

Probably my favorite underrated band of all time. If anyone that has enjoyed this album at any point in their lives and never heard Denver Harbor (Will Salazar’s short lived band after Fenix*TX) I highly recommend checking out their album Scenic.

 

Denver Harbor doesn't get talked about enough. It's a solid album and I do enjoy revisiting it from time to time. I always sorta considered it a Fenix album since Chris Lewis was also involved.

That being said..

I don't know if I was in the wrong stage of my life or what, but I just didn't connect with DH the way I did the first two FTX albums.

 

Fenix Tx is one of my favorite bands! I also just made an account to get on this thread!

The s/t is better than Lechuza in my opinion but Lechuza is still fantastic!

I know Fenix tx put out the Creep EP but does anybody know anything as to if they are working on anything new? Does Will have any other new music? I know about DH and while I did like most of that album it wasn’t as good as Fenix.

I would love to know any new news on Fenix Tx

 

I love this record and this band.

 

This album was played loud and often during my high school years. Shame they never got big.

 

Woah, I was just listening to them this weekend! "Minimum Wage" was always my jam; I certainly spent a lot more time on the first album than the second. Echoing what others have said here--their pop-punk stuff was golden, but then the metal-tinged stuff came off to me as trying-too-hard-to-be-Sum41. That said, you're absolutely right about this album not being pushed like other DTR bands. In fact, the only reason I ever even got into Fenix TX was because I got REALLY in the DTR roster and decided to listen to every band they ever had. Fenix TX definitely is a "what could have been" type of band. There were probably just too many similar-sounding bands at that time and they couldn't all get pushed through to the mainstream. A similar situation (though not on DTR) would be Amazing Transparent Man--really good pop-punk tunes that stand up alongside all the other similar bands of that timeframe but just never got pushed to stardom.

You could maybe put Allister (though they were big in Japan, "Somewhere On Fullerton" should have been MASSIVE), A Day at the Fair, and to an extent Home Grown were other pop-punk bands on DTR that were in that same niche but never got the attention that New Found Glory and Something Corporate got, especially when MCA got in the picture. Then DTR started moving away from that sound when they started signing Jenoah, Hellogoodbye, Adelphi, Socratic, etc. and by then Fenix TX was long gone and Denver Harbor just never grabbed me the same way.

 

I was obsessed with this band in middle school and freshman year. I can’t overstate how important they were to me in shaping my adolescence and my influence for my own song writing. Love this band so much.

side note, funny this review describing Katie w as a scorned lover song when Will always used to say that song was just about weed every time they played it live. Also, agree that song for everyone is definitely their best track ever.

 

A little bit cleaner production and somewhere on Fullerton could have been a lot bigger. Maybe put it through the trombino factory and it could have been starting line level.

 

Loving the retrospectives Adam! Definitely brings me back to the crossroads of my teen years of graduating high school and not knowing what do to with my life. 2001 was definitely an interesting year I can remember vividly.

But for the album, "Phoebe Cates," Threesome", "Tearjerker", "A Song For Everyone", and"Abba Zabba" still get some heavy rotation on my Spotify playlists!

 

Solid review, Adam. And he remains one of the better singers from that pop punk era. I always think of this excellent live performance (featuring Ilan Rubin on drums):

 

Perfect time of year to revisit this record. I saw them a couple years back with Unwritten Law and they sounded fucking excellent (UL... not so much).

It sucks that they never really broke free from the “we have a song in a teen movie and have members of larger bands in our music videos” tier (Anyone remember that Jailbait movie that MTV produced? Jesus.) because they definitely had the song writing chops and were able to pull it off live way better than a lot of bands that got much bigger.

 

This talk about Denver Harbor made me remember something: Around 2005-2006 I remember going to a show that featured Allister (Headlining) Fenix TX, Day At The Fair, and Denver Harbor(!). Anyone else remember this? DATF and FTX/DH pulled up to the venue in this giant 1989 looking RV camper thing. It was awesome. Will was doing double duty singing Fenix TX and Denver Harbor in the same night. A few days after the show, I remember reading something (probably on absolutepunk) about FTX and DH dropping off the tour because Will essentially threw his voice out.

 

I attended this tour in Chicago. I got to meet Will Salazar again and got him to sign my DH cd. He was very approachable and super fun to talk to. Will doing double duty was very admirable, great show.

 

I can't believe "Lechuza" is 20 years old. Holy crap.

Fenix TX's MCA Records message board was the first forum I ever joined (You could jump from there to Blink's board so it was always a good time.) For some dumb reason, I started the erroneous rumor that they were going to release "Phoebe Cates" as a single and a band member had to jump in and say "No we're not."

With that said, I think the lack of promotion had to do a little with the album being all over the place and dark, when the genre was going lighter with New Found Glory, Good Charlotte and Simple Plan. I also recall the band members were at odds with each other touring and recording the album, with some wanting to go really heavy and the animosity spawning the song "Beating a Dead Horse." When it finally got released, several band members had left, which I imagine made it even harder to promote.

Still, we got two solid albums out of them, but I wish they would have lasted longer.