photo by Geddi Monroe
As I am marveling at the sheer heaviness and power of "Room" by North Carolina post punk band Tongues of Fire I am reminded how cathartic massive powerful music can be. The pummeling drums and unrelenting drive of rabid guitars, of pounding bass and a passionate vocal wail can literally cover you in a sort of cloak of your own silence. It is a place where you can cry out, you can face your demons, face yourself. It can be a place to become inspired or to shed off the things that cause you pain.
This powerful effect is even made more so when the songs meaning is vague or the emotional gravitas is felt on the surface or way down below as opposed to simple bad boy rock (hot for teacher or cars). "Room" is informed by heartbreak and self reflection inspired by moments of self-isolation and depression expressed by the band's songwriter Lowel Hobbs following his mother’s untimely passing to cancer. He shares: “Believe it or not the song was written pre-pandemic. It was super cathartic to be able to express those feelings and it’s also kind of beautiful in a way that my very personal singular experience became a collective one because of COVID too.“
"Room" is the first single from the "Burn My Body Clean" EP, out Aug 27 via Godless America.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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In recent years, the band’s hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, has built a worldwide buzz as a destination for Americana music, southern culture and artisanal crafts. What’s yet to gain the recognition it deserves is the counterculture of alternative rock that the city’s young are producing on the edges of town, far removed from the craft breweries and holistic health food markets.
Tongues Of Fire join a wave of exciting music makers that seem set to change that, including, Wednesday, Secret Shame and Ahleuchatistas. Burn My Body Clean is the followup to their 2019 debut album Everyone Hates Us and finds the group retooled as a four-piece and refueled by reflection on a crushing life experience.
The group’s songwriter, singer and guitarist, Lowell Hobbs, endured the loss of his mother after a grueling cancer battle during the recording of Everyone Hates Us (2019), but it is on Burn My Body Clean where he had the opportunity to truly process and explore the experience. These songs represent five stages of the grieving process; each written at a different time and each contributing to the furious catharsis that is borne out in the arrangements.
Lowell’s mother is part of this record in more than just influence; her voice is sampled on the closing track “inst” and, in a profound symbolic act, her ashes are mixed with the ink that painted the EP artwork. Lowell explains, “I’d heard about human ashes being used in art and thought it’d be a really amazing way for my mom to be a part of the album because it goes out to her in so many ways. She was a huge supporter of the band and everything I did. I contacted local artist Victoria Arnish who takes care of her ailing mother and we had an instant connection. She understood exactly what I was going for and we’ve spent a lot of time listening to the music, talking and figuring out how to convey what we want to.”
“Room” is accompanied by a gritty visual that creatively twists live footage of the band into flashes of shapes, warped shadows, and bursts of action. All interspersed with shots of the band letting off roman candles captured by a yard-sale infrared camera. The show footage is pulled from the band’s first indoor show post-pandemic, at The Grey Eagle in their hometown. It’s fitting that the visual is so heavily influenced by live energy as the group’s commitment to harnessing the power of live performance is a defining characteristic of the cuts captured on the E.P. As the band readied to record this collection, Lowell was drawn to working with producer Dan Dixon, who’s experiences amongst the 90’s grunge movement, 2000’s garage rock revival and ongoing involvement in the Atlanta noise/sludge scene felt like a perfect match to the spirit that Tongues Of Fire sought to harness. Recorded live in-studio over 2 packed days, Burn My Body Clean offers a strident development on Everybody Hates Us. Sonically, and emotionally, this record swoops through high and low, loud and quiet, and ultimately delivers the group at their most visceral yet. So, turn it up and tune into the raw heart of Appalachia, beating away in the chests of four twenty-somethings in The Land Of The Sky.
Tongues Of Fire also announce preliminary Southeastern US tour dates for this summer, with more shows likely to be added shortly. More details will be shared on the Tongues Of Fire social media channels as the final details are confirmed
Most bands fit cleanly within a genre but Tongues of Fire don't. At their heart they are a punk band, their shows are unhinged, the music is straightforward and hard hitting, there is no trace of pomp or excessiveness but they are accessible and there is a well crafted feel to what they do. The production on their albums is clean and the instrumentals deceptively complex. They have many contemporaries and influences like Bloc Party, Slint, IDLES and The Fall of Troy but can't be compared to them. Tongues of Fire are firmly themselves, and intent on moving the scene forward.
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