Tall Firs Mini Interview + Free Scrawl cover (playing I'll Be Your Mirror New York)
|
|
Tweet |
Today we have another in a series of mini interviews with artists performing at I'll Be Your Mirror USA in New York City this September. Tickets for the event running September 21-23rd at Pier 36, Manhattan are on sale now.
Tall Firs play Sunday 23rd curated by ATP and we're also happy to be able to present a free download of the band covering fellow festival line-up artists Scrawl - check out their cover of 'Prize' here. The band have previously recorded covers of artists they performed alongside at ATP events in Minehead and London - check out a full playlist here.
Here are the interview answers courtesy of Aaron Mullan...
Name Of Band: Tall Firs
Hometown: Annapolis, MD and Brooklyn, NY
Year Formed: 1990 (when we were fourteen)
Bio: The Tall Firs are Aaron Mullan and David Mies: best friends since adolescence, songwriting partners, drinking buddies, and singers of songs "delivered from a pit of despair, a place where there really is no hope left"—according to a recent rave review. Their recording career started out with a couple of albums on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label. The first, Tall Firs (2006), was a pretty direct analogue of their moody, intertwining guitars and loose vocal harmonies, with a few cameos by jazz icon Chris Corsano. The second was the more rockin’ Too Old To Die Young (2008), which featured the addition of friend and collaborator Ryan Sawyer (At The Drive In, Fiery Furnaces, Stars like Flees etc.) on the drums. Now, the Firs reside at ATP Recordings, who’ve recently released their third album Out Of It And Into It (March 2012). The songs in this collection are spare, often mournful hymns, sung earnestly if not perfectly: the singers having focussed their labor on content over polish. The boys tour as a duo these days and are pleased as punch with this latest effort, which holds all the hopes (and the baggage) they've accumulated up to this point. Don't worry, on stage they usually tell a few jokes to lighten up the old despair pit.
What are the most recent activities of your band?
We have a new record out on ATP records!
How do you feel about being picked by ATP to play and how excited are you about playing the event?
Amped! We feel like a million bucks. I think we'll be playing our traditional Sunday morning hangover slot, so we and the audience will at that time feel like flaming bags of dog shit. But in our case, we'll feel like a flaming bag containing a million bucks worth of dog shit.
Are there any other currently confirmed bands you are excited about seeing?
Hot Snakes, Emeralds
What else will be be doing whilst you are in New York for this event?
Living our normal lives. Mowing the lawn, riding the subway, working, writing more tunes, writing more stories, changing diapers.
What's your most memorable NY show (if you've played one)?
There's actually literally more than we can remember. You know, every show is great for us. We just get to hang out and bullshit with our best friend and play guitar.
If you were curating name three bands you would pick to play your event: (Editor: He's clearly ignored the three bands part here...)
Ad Rock + Mike D
Afrocubanism
Andy Ingalls DJ Set
B52's Perform First Album
Black Flag
Bombino
Brentwoods (youtube)
Bruce Springsteen Performs Nebraska (Solo Acoustic)
Bush Tetras (youtube)
Call Of The Wild (youtube)
Can
Cat Power
Chic
Chris Corsano (solo)
Circle Jerks
Creation
The Cure Perform First 3 Albums.
Danzig
Dbx (Dan Bell) (youtube)
Dead Milkmen
Dean Mcphee (youtube)
Descendants
Disappears
Doug Yule (youtube)
Drive Like Jehu
Drunk Injuns
Egyptian Lover (youtube)
Elf Power
Endless Boogie
Erkin Koray (youtube)
Faggot Bruce (youtube)
Fleasheaters (youtube)
Free Kitten
Fripp & Eno
Fugazi
Grand Wizard Theadore
Groundhogs (youtube)
Headcoats
Headcoatees
Huggy Bear
Jandek
Jawbreaker
Jim O'Rourke Plays Songs
Joshua (youtube)
The Kinks Perform Arthur
Knyfe Hits (youtube)
Kool Herc
LCD Sound System
Lee Ranaldo Band
Leonard Cohen (solo Acoustic)
Liquid Liquid
Lord Zurp
Lungfish (youtube)
M Ward
Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks
Man Or Astro-Man
Marr + Joyce + Rourke + Gannon Play Music Of The Smiths
Meg Baird (youtube)
Metal Mountains (youtube)
Michael Hurley (youtube)
Milkshakes
Mummies (youtube)
Nation Of Ulysses
Neil Young (Solo Acoustic)
Neko Case (With Sadies)
Nels Cline Interstellar Space (youtube)
Off
Orchestra Baobob
Other Dimentions In Music (youtube)
Pharoh Sanders/Mccoy Tyner Duo
Pussy Galore
Quickspace
Rebecca Gates
Rites Of Spring
Rocky Erickson
Run DMC
Sir Lord Baltimore Perform 'Kingdom Come'
Slant 6 (youtube)
Smokey Robinson
Soft Location (youtube)
Sonic Youth
Sonics
Spacemen 3
Sparks Perform Propaganda
Spectre Folk
Spinal Tap
Sweet
Talk Normal (youtube)
Talking Heads Perform 77
Tara Jane O'Neill
Television
The Hated (youtube)
The Jam
The Monorchid (youtube)
The Shit (youtube)
Theoretical Girls
Tom Waits (Solo Acoustic)
Tower Recordings (youtube)
Turing Machine (youtube)
TV On The Radio
United States Of America (youtube)
Universal Order Of Armegeddon (youtube)
Unrest
Ut (youtube)
Velvet Underground Perform The Quine Tapes
Wedding Present
Wild Flag
Woods
Y Pants (youtube)
What records are you currently listening to more than others?
Elizabeth Mitchell - You Are My Sunshine
Meg Baird - Seasons on Earth
If you could pick one of your records for ATP fans to listen to, which would you chose?
The new one! Out Of It and Into It. It's totally back to the basics. You really can't buy too many copies. Remember: the holidays are right around the corner, and nothing melts the ice around the heart like sharing a long, unflinching stare into the abyss with the Tall Firs. Buy one for everyone on your list and never be accused of playing favorites.