It’s possible that some of my US/Canada readers will have heard of Forest Fire before today, but as they have yet to be released in the UK, I have only just had them appear on my radar.
Forest Fire hail from Brooklyn, and it’s clear that the hope is that across the blogs they will prove this year’s answer to Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes. On the basis of their album, I’d say that would be a realistic, worthy and achievable aim. To me they sound like the Velvet Underground might do if they’d been obsessed with Americana -and come along forty years later, obviously. Lofi folk with nods to a punk spirit and attitude.
Their debut album Survival was released last June in the US and will be released in July in the UK. It will be preceeded by a 7″ limited to 250 copies (which is pretty limited when you think about it). The album came together over eight months in Oregon and Brooklyn. At ten tracks and twenty eight minutes long, there’s experimentation but no room for self-indulgence.
Here’s hoping 2009 is their year.
Forest Fire -‘Slow Motion.’ mp3 (from Survival)
Forest Fire -‘She’s Building Something Out Of Me.’ mp3 (On the link I was sent this was described as being a non-album track, though it is on the US version of the album).
Note: Survival is released in the UK in July. It is not available on iTunes UK, though it is on eMusic.