The Trophy Fire

The Trophy Fire is an indie/power-pop band that was formed back in 2007 by lead singer and guitarist Ben Flanagan. In 2008, Flanagan worked with Jamie McGoldrick to release their first record, A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean. Their debut won over listeners with its upbeat sound. For their sophomore album, Modern Hearts, Flanagan worked with Adam and John Schuman to continue to create more up-tempo pop-rock songs.

The first single and title track provides a great melody with catchy rhythms, shuffling drumbeats and a great use of dynamics. Synthesizers drive “Comrades,” “Tired Eyes” and “Twilight Park,” which help to build a deeper, darker sound to the songs.

Intimate tracks that provide strong guitar playing and relatable lyrics are “Further Than We Know” with well-written hooks such as “Standing in her bedroom/With champagne and cigarettes/Talking resolutions/Taking sips and placing bets…” enable anyone to relate to the music. “Hired Gun” is an acoustic song about becoming so close to someone you don’t want to let them go or have the night end, while “Darker Into Gold” is about letting go, changing, evolving and surviving.

With all the competition in the alternative music genre, this band stands on their own, charming ears one song at a time.

In A Word: Heartfelt

—by Ariel Vreeland
- The Aquarian

The Trophy Fire is an indie/power-pop band that was formed back in 2007 by lead singer and guitarist Ben Flanagan. In 2008, Flanagan worked with Jamie McGoldrick to release their first record, A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean. Their debut won over listeners with its upbeat sound. For their sophomore album, Modern Hearts, Flanagan worked with Adam and John Schuman to continue to create more up-tempo pop-rock songs.

The first single and title track provides a great melody with catchy rhythms, shuffling drumbeats and a great use of dynamics. Synthesizers drive “Comrades,” “Tired Eyes” and “Twilight Park,” which help to build a deeper, darker sound to the songs.

Intimate tracks that provide strong guitar playing and relatable lyrics are “Further Than We Know” with well-written hooks such as “Standing in her bedroom/With champagne and cigarettes/Talking resolutions/Taking sips and placing bets…” enable anyone to relate to the music. “Hired Gun” is an acoustic song about becoming so close to someone you don’t want to let them go or have the night end, while “Darker Into Gold” is about letting go, changing, evolving and surviving.

With all the competition in the alternative music genre, this band stands on their own, charming ears one song at a time.

In A Word: Heartfelt

—by Ariel Vreeland
- The Aquarian

Bay Area alt-rockers the Trophy Fire's sophomore outing draws the bulk of its inspiration from like-minded outfits such as Coldplay, Snow Patrol, and The Fray, employing a perfectly seasoned balance of '80s radio pop and emo-kissed post-grunge that's pleasingly pedestrian without being totally redundant. Spirited cuts like "Modern Hearts" and "Medicate Me" and the sunset balladry of "Further Than We Know" and "The Rent" sound custom-made for providing coming-of-age dramas and reality show montages with the appropriate emotional punch, while more explorative tracks like "Chaos/Control" and "Twilight Park" display a knack for taking their genre outside of its comfort zone. - Allmusic.com

It has been three years since The Trophy Fire's excellent debut A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean [2008], which made our Top 50 that year, so it is nice to see the San Francisco trio continuing their styled alternative rock on the sophomore album Modern Hearts. The record follows the same formula with its slower burning tracks that hit you with big memorable choruses which are all driven from the soft vocal delivery of frontman Ben Flanagan. Modern Hearts has its moments like on the title track which keeps your feet tapping with its big guitar sound and soaring melody before taking the volume way down into an earthly pause near the end of the track and then revving back up to its conclusion. The band also offers an excellent upbeat cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats" which is a highlight. The rest of Modern Hearts follows a similar formula and does not quite have the pulse that made A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean so successful but overall the record is a grower with repeat listens. The Trophy Fire are a confident band that continues to show promise with quality songwriting, song structures and memorable choruses that should have no problem building their fanbase if they get the right break!

Key Tracks: "Modern Hearts", "Tired Eyes", "Heartbeats"

Bands With Similar Fire:
Jimmy Eat World
Idlewild
Snow Patrol - The Fire Note

What The Trophy Fire accomplished on A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean was to generate the illusion of being an upbeat bright album with a lot of bounce and angular guitar chords, when in reality it is a more hidden powerful piano-driven emo album with dark lyrics that entrance the listener. This entrancement carries through the completion of A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean and made San Francisco's The Trophy Fire one of our surprise finds of the year! - Fire Note

The Trophy Fire consists of longtime friends Ben Flanagan and Jamie McGoldrick, which met in a philosophy class at the University of San Francisco. They claim earning an A- in the class but shoot even higher on their debut record A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean to not only get high marks with fans but win new listeners over with their catchy approach to indie rock. I believe their goal is achieved, as the record is full of memorable tracks with Flanagan’s soft vocal delivery style over clear progressive chords and guitar grooves that stick in your head.

To get the full band vibe the duo used four different Bay Area drummers along with a creditable list of local favorite guests on keyboards, guitar and backing vocals that all perform their tasks to the max by blending in perfectly. What The Trophy Fire accomplish, that is really difficult, on A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean is generating the illusion of being an upbeat bright album with a lot of bounce and angular guitar chords, when in reality it is a more hidden powerful piano-driven emo album with dark lyrics that entrance the listener. This entrancement carries thru the completion of A Lifetime In The Middle Of The Ocean and only leaves the listener reaching for the repeat button in order to hear The Trophy Fire again! - Fire Note

When two guys meet in a philosophy class at the University of San Francisco and go on to form a band, I guess you have to expect lyrics such as "Society can burn into disharmony," from "Jenny Under House Arrest," and "You can't fix someone who's dressed for their death," from "Certain Disaster." But don't worry: There are plenty of hooks in the Trophy Fire's "A Lifetime in the Middle of the Ocean" to keep your attention on a more visceral level. Ben Flanagan and Jamie McGoldrick are the Trophy Fire, with good contributions on the debut album by other members of the Bay Area music scene, including four drummers. There's nice variety among the dozen cuts on the album, from the moody introspection of "Sleepsound" to the more up-tempo energy of "Sundown." - San Francisco Chronicle

Bitterness is a hard quality to achieve with recorded sound, because it's so subtle that it often comes across as light sarcasm or down-right rage. For a band to get the balance right, some of the bitterest love songs are like the best candy; they taste tart and sour on your tongue but leave the palate satisfied and hungry for more.

The Trophy Fire make that kind of sugar-coated sour candy in short bursts of guitar rock/pop. I'm not usually won over by this kind of musical soundscape but I really have been digging "Divide" off their new release A Lifetime in the Middle of the Ocean (out now on Talking House Records). What sets them apart are the decent harmonies between Ben Flanagan and Jamie McGoldrick (the dynamic duo behind The Trophy Fire). You can easily imagine the song being played on acoustic guitars and being just as effective and emotional. - Quick Before It Melts

These guys get first prize when it comes to writing melodic rock songs that are in fact melodic and actually rock. Essentially formed in a philosophy of history class at University of San Francisco in 2002, the Trophy Fire consists of Ben Flanagan and Jamie McGoldrick. "We sat next to each other, we both had big hair, and at the break we just started talking about music and Fugazi," Flanagan says in his band bio of what became the duo's first gig together. For a class assignment, they performed Tom Petty's "Free Falling," replacing the lyrics with Wilhelm Dilthey's ideas on hermeneutics. They got an A-. The two philosophers first played together in the band Io, which eventually came to be known as Dear Kerosene. Some Live 105 play and lots of gigs later, Dear Kerosene eventually played the 2006 BFD local band stage at the Shoreline, but split soon after. It was around 2007 when McGoldrick and Flanagan gave themselves the new name, the Trophy Fire. Take a dip into the band's debut album (Aug. 12 from Talking House Records) "A Lifetime in the Middle of the Ocean."

Lineup: Ben Flanagan and Jamie McGoldrick. Live lineup includes James Leste (Audrye Sessions), Bob Kissinger (LoveLikeFire), Aaron Bonsall (Roma 79), Brett Wittman (Push To Talk), Eric Kuhn (Built for the Sea), Matt Swanson (Minipop).

1. The Trophy Fire's music should be filed between:

The Postal Service and Jimmy Eat World.

2. The soundtrack to what movie would your music best match?

Any movie with Audrey Tatou.

3. If you could collaborate on a song with any person, living or dead, who would that be?

Freddie Mercury.

4. If a junior high school asked you to play a cover song at the next talent show, what song would you choose?

"Hot for Teacher," by Van Halen, at French American International School in San Francisco.

5. What is the meaning of life?

Watching BBC's "The Office" while eating takeout from Minh's Garden on Clement Street.

Check them out: myspace.com/thetrophyfire; www.thpro.com - San Francisco Chronicle