Feel Real Fear

A split-format album is a tough sell, but pairing a dry, fast-paced stand-up set with a ten-piece garage-pop orchestra somehow works. Robert Fones handles the comedy side of this 2016 record, delivering tight observations on the quiet embarrassments of polite society. His most memorable run involves an agonizingly awkward buffet encounter with a stranger who dropped a sandwich, culminating in Fones offering the worst possible small-talk recovery. He also spends a good chunk of his set explaining why horses are actually monsters with terrifying teeth that we have no business keeping around in the modern era.

Released by Stand Up! Records, Feel Real Fear captured a specific moment in the mid-2010s Minneapolis scene. Fones was a rising local comic who spent his time co-producing Boy Kisses, a weekly showcase that had been named the city’s breakout comedy show by local alt-weeklies. To flesh out the record, he teamed up with The Drug Budget, a massive local band fronted by step-brothers David W. Gibson and Linus Kangas. The band’s tracks, including “I Belong in Jail” and “The Ripple,” break up Fones’ sets with bright brass, staccato drums, and earnest harmonies.