ARTIST: Tall Firs
TITLE: Tall Firs
LABEL: Ecstatic Peace Records
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 188kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 38m total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-09-12
RIP DATE: 2006-08-29
Track List
----------
1. More To Come 3:02
2. Don't Complain 3:47
3. Go Whiskey 3:13
4. Buddy/Baby 3:34
5. Us + Our Friends 2:58
6. The Breeze 3:38
7. Road To Ruin 2:59
8. Soldier On 4:16
9. The Well 3:47
10. The Woods 3:31
11. Don't Prey On Me 3:22
Release Notes:
http://www.tallfirs.org/
http://www.myspace.com/tallfirs
http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/
New York City Underground Electric Folk
Tall Firs were formed in 1990 when teenagers Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan taught
one another to play guitar over the telephone in Annapolis, Maryland. Eleven
years later they played their first gig, having crawled to Brooklyn, NY in the
interim. Halfway through the second decade of searching for a drummer, Ryan
Sawyer finally assumed the throne.
A near-telepathic nonchalance pervades the music of the Tall Firs. The
interwoven melodies of the two guitars converse in a language that has evolved
an unsettling familiarity like birdies on a remote island. The drums comment on
the discussion, push or pull it, effortlessly gliding from free time to strict
metronome and back over the course of a single measure. Melancholic incantations
reminiscent of Joni Mitchell or Jackson C. Frank transition into open-tuning
workouts of despair and beauty like Mississippi John Hurt throwing down with
Wire.
In New York, the band has packed Lower East Side hotspot Tonic, been curated by
Jim O'Rourke to perform at The Stone, and done gigs at dive bars, amphitheatres,
and illegal loft spaces while maintaining a semi-residence at Williamsburg's
scene-defining Union Pool. Tall Firs have shared bills with Sonic Youth, Oneida,
Awesome Color, Samara Lubelski, P.G. Six, Tim Foljahn, and Corsano/Flaherty
amongst other Brooklyn and New England weirdos.
More on the band members: Aaron Mullan (guitar/vox) was a longtime collaborator
of now-infamous New Weird American Chris Corsano before spending several years
recording albums for other people. Ryan Sawyer (drums/vox) played in At the
Drive In as a teenager, and has played in groups such as the Mekons, Fiery
Furnaces, and Stars Like Fleas, plus has been a floating presence on the NYC
underground jazz scene in groups like Eye Contact; his collaboration with Daniel
Carter, Matt Heyner, and Matt Lavelle. Dave Mies (guitar/vox) paid dues in the
Baltimore scuzz-rock zone before bringing his world-weary guitar stylings up
north.
As a trio, the Tall Firs have the disarming presence of a dog-whisperer, and the
unnerving triangular-cold-read of a shadow boxing cruee of mesmerists. This is
the band guitarman/journalist Alan Licht says is "Beard-less contemporary rock
at it's best."