Musings on a Music Scene

Those of us who fancy ourselves music fans often have a band they can call their own. It may not always be their favorite band, but something about them keeps us coming back and creates in us a strange sense of ownership. Whether it be an unabashed love for the musicianship, quality of lyrics, or just being so damned catchy that it's impossible to ignore, music has that special immediate place in our hearts. It cuts through the mind's reason receptors and heads straight for the realm of instinct. For the past twelve years, I have had such a band with that sense of undeniable immediacy. That band is Firewater.

Firewater is not a band that ever reached the point of mainstream success. It was formed out of the ashes of Cop Shoot Cop, which was led up by bassist/vocalist/lyric virtuoso Tod Ashley (Tod A. to the world) and featured a gaggle of musicians from New York's indie scene pieced together into a deranged nomadic carnival. Their first album, Get Off the Cross...We Need the Wood for the Fire came out in 1996, and was accompanied by an opening spot on Soul Coughing's national tour. This of course made sense, considering the drummer of Soul Coughing, Mr. Yuval Gabay, was doing double duty for Firewater on their first album. My brother went to that tour stop in Philly, and couldn't stop gushing about this Firewater band when he came home that night. I listened to the album, and have been hooked ever since. The music is this wonderful mix of 1980's Tom Waits carnival music (think Rain Dogs) and eastern europeon klezmer music. In any given song, expect to hear the standard trappings of a rock band tinged with interludes of violin, accordion, horns, balalaikas, clarinets, and any number of other instruments. It is one of the most distinctive sounds I've heard from a band, and was instantly recognizable as something different and special.

All that gushing, and I haven't even had a chance to mention the lyrics. It's obvious that Mr. A. has had a colorful life, and his lyrical flourishes are wonderful. Take, for instance, this verse from the song "7th Avenue Static":

Bring out the Gin, and the small violins
I'm a raging success as a failure
And it's colder than hell in this cardboard hotel
Which I share with a chronic embezzler
So I beat my retreat down Collister Street
To one of my holy places
And they tangled my wings with wire and string
And I'm spinning in a whirlpool of faces
And I'll take what the dumpsters are giving
But I'll do my best to survive
Because I still think that life's for the living
Yes, I still think that life's for the living

It's just breathtaking. Powerful, clever, well designed phrasing and rhyme schemes. The lyrics paint these evocative pictures that come to life in the mind's eye. That doesn't happen for me much. Tom Waits is that good of a lyricist. So is Pete Townshend and the other greats of the British Invasion. But beyond that? I'm hard pressed to think of anyone with such a grasp of the English language and the ability to manipulate it to serve his whims and excite the populous.

Shortly after releasing their fourth album, The Man on the Burning Tightrope in 2004, they announced a national headlining tour. I was a sophomore in college at Boston University at the time, and they happened to be coming to the Paradise Rock Club, which happened to be on BU's campus. This was, quite possibly the best concert I have ever seen in my life. 8 musicians on stage having a ball. Nearly every song was extended in some way to include an extra improvisational solo of some kind. I never wanted it to end. And when the pre-encore finale, a ten minute rendition of the dirty jazz tune "Another Perfect Catastrophe" kicked into high gear, I had what was probably the closest thing to a spiritual experience in my still short life. It was a once in a lifetime scene.

So why talk about Firewater when I should be musing on cardboard superheroes? Well, Firewater is putting out their first album of original content, The Golden Hour, is to be released in April, with a World Tour to follow. I already have tickets to the show at the North Star Bar in Philly on May 25th, and I can't wait to see the boys do their thing again. I implore any of you who came to thing blog to read up on some VS and decided to read through this article to check this band out. Buy The Ponzi Scheme off the iTunes music store. Order the albums off Amazon. Use whatever means you see fit. You won't be sorry.

I'll be getting us back to our regularly scheduled VS conversation tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the music you brave souls who want to take a chance.