Fire On Fire, a super Portland, Maine quintet featuring ex members of Cerberus Shoal, wail on their acoustic instruments — stand-up bass, mandolin, banjo, harmonium, accordion, guitar, tamboritza, jembe, dobro, etc — and harmonize like nobody’s business. They all live in the same house, which has seemingly forged them into one seamless brimstoned, rural-gospel choir rattling out some of the prettiest harmonies this side of Young God labelmates, Akron/Family, only more countrified. Our favorite tune from the band’s debut five-song EP is its opener “Hangman,” which gathers momentum on a strange Animal Collective-in-a-hay-field vocal pulse. Please accept it as the official Fire On Fire intro sermon after the jump. And keep in mind: Everyone, even the worst man, has friends.
That warble really is so great and knotty. The group has a transcendent pulse to ‘em — sounds cheesy, but take a look at a back-porch rendition of “Amnesia,” and notice how it all sorta crackles and waves? Right, like fire.
The 5-song EP, hand-screened heavy stock/velum packaging in a limited edition of 1,000, is only available at the Young God site and at the band’s live show. Look for their debut full-length of all new material to show up on Young God sometime next year.
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Not a bad song until they started singing.
Go Fire on Fire!
It’s cool to see a band from my hometown (South Portland) being covered on a national blog.
You know Chris of FoF is friends with Marissa Nadler and Larkin Grimm? Not a big surprise.
Wow, those guys look edgy…edgy in the way wheatgrass is edgy. Didn’t really like the music so much, but those are really cool chairs.
Maine is a cultural vacuum.
A not-that-well-written (by me) review of their very good EP. Don’t miss them live if/when you get the chance (it’ll be a few months, at least).
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid48610.aspx
best band in portland maine is Cult Maze. hands down.
haha… cult maze…
I saw a good band called An Evening With open for Magnolia Electric Company. Diamond Sharp rules too.
Maine music scene is kicking. Don’t forget Ray Lamontagne!