Tag: Public Access TV

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Library is on Fire Teams Up with Mike Watt on a Tense and Uneasy Ripper

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Steve Five took his name from a poem by French wartime poet René Char, while working at Strand Bookstore. He also had weekly meetings over coffee with Television‘s Tom Verlaine. Five started The Library is on Fire back in 2007, and the band quickly established a sound that combined the melodies of Guided by Voices and the wall of sound guitar riffage of Dinosaur, Jr. and others.

The Library is on Fire quickly became a NYC scene mainstay and developed a reputation for playing chaotic live shows at Glasslands and Death by Audio. After several releases including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights, the band went on hiatus on 2014 with members going on to play in a number of other notable projects including Oberhofer, Public Access TV and more.

After a nearly lengthy hiatus, the members of The Library is on Fire have released new material, which will appear on their first album in almost a decade. The album will feature “Back Pocket,” a a sludgy, shoegazer-like ripper that brought A Place to Bury Strangers and others to mind.

The album’s second and latest single “Hotel Jugoslavija” features the legendary Mike Watt on a track built around relentless military styled drumming paired with sludgy angular bursts of guitar and lyrics that use a spy games metaphor to describe a relationship full of love, loss, deceit and heartbreak. The result is a song that possesses a math rock-meets-prog rock vibe while being tense and uneasy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Library is on Fire Shares a Sludgy Ripper

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Steve Five took his name from a poem by French wartime poet René Char, while working at Strand Bookstore. He also had weekly meetings over coffee with Television‘s Tom Verlaine. Five started The Library is on Fire back in 2007, and the band quickly established a sound that combined the melodies of Guided by Voices and the wall of sound guitar riffage of Dinosaur, Jr. and others.

The Library is on Fire quickly became a NYC scene mainstay and developed a reputation for playing chaotic live shows at Glasslands and Death by Audio. After several releases including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights, the band went on hiatus on 2014 with members going on to play in a number of other notable projects including Oberhofer, Public Access TV and more.

Released earlier this year, “Back Pocket” is the first single from the Brooklyn-based outfit in over nine years. Built around distortion-pedaled power chords, thunderous and propulsive drumming, dreamy melodies and enormous hooks and choruses, “Back Pocket” is a sludgy, shoegazer-like ripper that brings A Place to Bury Strangers and others to mind.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Reid MacMaster (vocals, guitar), Sean Hackl (guitar, vocals), Duncan Briggs (bass, vocals) and Owen Wolff (drums, vocals), the Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based indie rock/garage rock act Fade Awaays have emerged as one of their hometown’s up-and-coming acts, thanks in part to a reputation for rowdy live sets centered around material with enormous, arena rock friendly choruses and hooks and fuzzy, 90s grunge rock-like power chords. In fact, the band has played some of Toronto’s most famed and beloved venues including Horseshoe Tavern, Mod Club Theatre and The Danforth Music Hall, have opened for the likes of Wolf Alice, Public Access TV, Hot Flash Heat Wave and The Sherlocks. And building upon a growing profile, the band has played sets at some of Canada’s largest music festivals including CMW, NXNE, Trapdoor Fest and Indie Week.

The Canadian band’s debut single “Get Along” is a gritty and anthemic garage rock barn-burner, complete with distortion heavy power chords, thundering drumming, howled vocals and a mosh-pit friendly, shout worthy hook. And while the song sounds as though it were indebted to The Hives and others, the song as the band says “is about trying to make the best of a situation and trying to get along with the ones you love in hard times.” Certainly, in light of our current sociopolitical moment, the urgent song is centered around a much-needed message for anyone trying to survive our mad, mad, mad, mad world.

As the band adds, the song was a last minute addition to their growing repertoire. “We wrote the arrangement for the song and sat on the lyrics for the rest of our days in the studio. I can’t even remember what we were trying to write the lyrics about because it took us way too long. Nothing felt right – it felt too rushed to be interesting but eventually we ended up writing lyrics about our situation, trying to get work done and how to work together in the studio. ‘I hope we get along / staying lazy ain’t no job couch driven trying to get along.’ It felt more accurate, natural, and engaging.”

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The 80s New Wave Channeling Sounds and Visuals of Public Access TV’s “End of an Era”

The quartet’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Never Enough is slated for a September 30, 2016 through Cinematic Records and the album’s latest single “End of an Era” sounds as though it draws from radio-friendly, 80s New Wave — in particular, think of The Fixx’s “Saved by Zero,” “One Thing Leads to Another,” “Red Skies,” and “The Sign of Fire,” The Knack’s “My Sharona,” Huey Lewis and The News’ “The Heart of Rock ‘N’ Roll,” and others as the band pairs angular guitar chords, a driving bass line, four-on-on-the-floor-like drumming, atmospheric synths, punchily delivered lyrics and an anthemic hook. As the band’s John Eartherly mentions in press notes “We’ve been told that playing a rock ‘n’ roll band in 2016 is a ridiculous thing. For all of us though, it isn’t a question of wanting to do it or not. We have to do it. I left home and quit school at 16 to play music. Music is all we know and love, and this son his an ode to us following that path.”

As for the recently released video, the band’s John Eatherly mentions in press notes that “the label wanted David LaChappelle to do this one, especially ’cause it’s the pop sugar injection song, and they hope, a little pot of radio-friendly unit-shifting gold. But we said ‘nah, give us your money and we’ll do it it ourselves.’ So we took their money and bought a 1986 Dodge 600 and a mini DV Cam and did what we normally do — but for your voyeuristic pleasure.” While visually nodding at the sort of visuals Crocodiles would do, the video does capture some of the spirit and feel of videos released in the 80s.

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Kate Spalla’s CMJ 2014 Highlights

As I’ve mentioned in a couple of previous posts, the CMJ Festival here in New York has become one of the preeminent and important music festivals of the entire calendar year for independent artists and their labels, music […]