Wires On Fire
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Wires On Fire

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"PunkNews.Org Homewrecker Review"

To pin down a band like Wires on Fire to one specific genre, you have to be the penultimate master of lies and bullshit. While I pride myself on my ability to come up with a real solid amount of the latter, there’s simply no way to pigeonhole an act like this. Buddyhead has a real interesting group on their hands, and Homewrecker is as schizophrenic a release as I’ve heard all year, this one and the last.

From the strumming of the first discordant notes and the simple drum pattern it's evident that this album isn’t going to be anything ordinary. The band's singer has two very different and two very distinct personalities. On the one hand, his delivery is sung in a very drawn out, groove-driven manner, but on less than a moment's notice, he spazzes out and shreds the very lining of his throat with each and every word. Just because he picks up intensity, however, doesn’t mean the rest of the band follows suit. And that’s what’s interesting, as they seemingly operate completely unaware of each other, but through some strange twist of events the two parts coalesce without incident. The melodic undercurrents below the outbreak of screaming in “Learn to Drown” sound terrific, but it’s instances like those that make it seem like the singer and rest of the band weren’t necessarily on the same page.

This tiny bit of indiscretion doesn’t ruin any of the overall flow, however, and the more the album goes on the less this is even an issue.

The off-kilter, jagged instrumentation in “Daisy” seems to be far more cohesive than the last track, with vocals and music actually aligning themselves to the same flow, and you can tell immediately. When the singing picks up a more hectic vibe, the bass becomes thicker, the guitar fuzz louder, and the playing of both just faster overall while maintaining a real bouncy, fun rhythm to it all. The drummer also takes on a much more prominent role as each song progresses, with a lot of his fills being integral to the overall sound and feel of a specific track. Things tone down considerably after “Daisy,” offering a lot of heavy, methodical riffing rather than the spazouts that dominated the first few songs. The vocals may not be as intensive, but you’d be hard-pressed to say the speedy soloing at the end of “Desert Sun Desert Moon” wasn’t something to rave about.

Spanning a vast array of the musical spectrum, Wires on Fire have a perfect sense of balance, and there’s simply not a viable comparison for them out right now. Equal parts discordance and atmospheric, in a very crude sense, the band bends and distorts genre lines in such a way that you’d never know they existed in the first place. - PunkNews.Org


"Chord Magazine Homewrecker Review"

4 Stars
Wires On Fire
Homewrecker (Buddyhead)
Fans of Drive Like Jehu, These Arms Are Snakes, and At The Drive In Take Note.

Wires on Fire's Homewrecker is the latest review from one of Buddyhead's newest recruits. With only the most modest of intentions, Wires on Fire's main intent is for you, the listener, to feel a little bit of what they're feeling and to hear what they're playing. Inciting influence from everyone from The Jesus Lizard and The Damned to Born Against and even the legendary Black Sabbath, Wires on Fire has created an energetic and blistering sound all its own. Getting heavy is something these Los Angeles boys do well, and it's quite evident throughout this six-song masterpiece of jaw-dropping riff after jaw-dropping riff. For being fresh out of high school, the boys of Wires on Fire sure know how to get things done in a timely fashion.
-Matt Hebert - Chord Magazine February/March 2006


"LA Alternative Press 10 Favorite Local Bands"

10 Bands by Fans
Our favorite local bands are creating a new—and—improved L.A. music scene.

Is it just me, or has there been a feeling in the air recently? No, no, not the sticky feeling. That’s just the fucking ridge of high pressure sitting around Arizona. What I’m talking about is something else. Something more guitary and dancy and bassy and...musicy. And all of it feels really important.

For the first time in a while it feels like the L.A. music scene is back to its good ol’ days. A growing number of bands are emitting sounds and emotions and an overall aura that just hasn’t been there for a decade or so. They’re working not (completely) for the money, they’re composing not (purely) to please, and even more, they’re supporting each other. It’s less cutthroat, more incredible, and it seems to be more about the music and less (a bit less) about the drugs. Oh, and it rocks.

And so now, with our first "summer music issue, we want to point out 10 of the bands that are helping create this new feeling. They’re the bands that, with a lot more elbow grease than glam, are making the emerging L.A. musical landscape what it is.

But mostly, they’re bands that we’re fans of. Each and every band featured here was specifically selected by a member of the LAAP staff who just couldn’t stand to let a local music story go by without mentioning _____, because they’re the best _____, or the most bizarre _____, or just generally the best thing since _____. So what’s on the following pages isn’t the result of publicists or press releases or those totally awesome monetary bribes. But rather, it’s the honest gushing of a bunch of pretty-darn-trustworthy fans. This is us at the show, holding up our big, collective, scribbled poster-board sign that says: "L.A. Music: We You!" Cuz we do. (Lesley Bargar)

WIRES on FIRE
They’re repetitiously compared to The Jesus Lizard, Drive Like Jehu, Black Flag and the Birthday Party by music blogs and media blurbs alike, but the only way to really understand Wires On Fire is to hear them for yourself. Or see them for yourself. See, Wires on Fire’s live show competes neck and neck with their recorded works as far as having a humbling amount of riotous energy. Straight from the canyons and boulevards of L.A., band members Evan Weiss, Michael Shuman, Darren Weiss and Jeff Lynn met while still a bunch of music-obsessed kids. And today, still barely legal, these youngin’s have set a record that many older, experienced bands have yet to lay claim to. They recently got off a U.S. tour — playing in New Orleans, scouring the streets of Tempe, Arizona and even joining the SXSW crowd. But really, all you need to know is that no the music of Wires on Fire universally rocks. Of course, like I said, you’ve gotta find that out for yourself.
(Mari Brookshire) - LA Alternative Press October/November 2005


"Live Review at the Fuze Box (New York)"

The Kids Are Alright
By John Brodeur

Wires on Fire, Complicated Shirt, Lincoln Money Shot
Fuze Box, Aug. 9

The Los Angeles music scene typically breeds two kinds of rock bands. The all-too-familiar sleazy, glammy, polished kind—cock-rock, if you’ll pardon the phrase. The kind that’s more concerned with aesthetic than content. Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses, et al. You get the picture.

And then there’s another kind.

Wires on Fire’s sparsely attended Monday night performance showed that L.A. isn’t all about coke and strippers and leather (oh my!). Seems like these kids—I mean kids as in they’re just out of high school—were brought up with a low-Axl, high-in-Iggy diet. Their short set was a maelstrom of calculated cacophony, punctuated by blasts of skronky, atonal guitar, and alchemized by just the faintest suggestion of pop melody. Heavy like whatever Lou Reed was on when he recorded Metal Machine Music. Sleazy, yes—that’s L.A. for you—but in all the right ways.

And bless their little hearts for getting it up at a Monday night fill-in date, with the promise of having to drive halfway back to Baltimore looming in the not-so-distant future, in front of 15 paying customers. Maybe it had something to do with the 40-ouncers of beer the boys were chugging before the show (ah, to be young and on the road!). However the band found their fuel, they sounded like a band with a plan—somewhere in between Dillinger Escape and Dismemberment, to be specific—on Monday night. They pounded out the tunes from their forthcoming Homewrecker EP hard and loud (the latter quality exacerbated by the Fuze Box’s mirror-and-tile décor, plus the chest-high stage). From the speed-Stooges burn of “Daisy” to the bum-leg strut of “Learn to Drown,” it was noisy and raw, yet sharp as a tack, marked by alarming mid-song shifts in focus and direction.

With the shallow stage stuffed tight by a hefty backline, the band’s frontline was forced into cramped quarters, but that didn’t stop bassist Michael Shuman and guitarist Dash Hutton from thrashing about in a blur of manic energy, while drummer Jeff Lynn—no, not the same one—did a dead-on impression of a 19-year-old Keith Moon (minus the heavy drugs). Meanwhile, vocalist- guitarist Even Weiss had a Dave- Grohl-doing-Nick-Cave thing going on that was dead cool. All said, a stunning debut appearance from a stunning new band. Almost makes that whole Southern California thing sound worth tolerating. Almost.

Complicated Shirt raised the bar awfully high with their brain-scrambling set. Kicking off with “Don’t Feed the Police” from their self-released debut, the Shirt were punky and dirty, with the combination of melodicism and overdriven grit that made early-period Dinosaur Jr. such a blast. Jonathan Pellerin’s spastic drumming and K. Sonin’s thick, meaty bass gave singer-guitarist Drew Benton a hell of a platform on which to stand. Benton’s Mascis-esque guitar heroics further validated the Dinosaur comparison, while his vocal delivery was alternately droll and disgusted, like a heavily-caffeinated Jim Carroll raging like a rat in a cage. And those lyrics! Benton’s among our area’s most literate lyricists; one of few whose charmingly cathartic couplets stand tall both on wax and in ink.

Lincoln Money Shot’s opening set showed a great deal of growth since the last I caught ’em. These days, the unapologetically abrasive-sounding duo are tapping into a blend of Confusion Is Sex-era Sonic Youth, the Germs and death metal, and they attacked their too-quick performance with the wide-eyed abandon of a high-school garage band playing their first gig. - Metroland


"Decoy Music Homewrecker Review"

Rating 4.5 out of 5

There's so many good things I could say about Wires On Fire, but before I waste your time you should know... if you're not open minded, and you only listen to the releases that come out on the 6 hippest mall punk emo labels, you might not get into this, so you shouldn't waste your time, but I urge everyone to buy this album, because it's a nice surprise.

Wires On Fire is a four piece rock phenomenon from Los Angeles that just made it loud and clear that they are here to stay with their very solid debut from Buddyhead Records. The band just freshly graduated high school, and are all 18 years old. They've already made their way on stage with acts like Death From Above 1979, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Their music is all over the place on this EP... It's LOUD and HEAVY as fuck at some points, and then the guitars come in with some jaw dropping riff with a slide. Some of the guitar riffs remind me of an evil circus that you'd be in your worst nightmare. I truly can't believe these guys are so young because they're one of the most talented bands their age, maybe even EVER. Their guitar riffs are brutally intricate and so creative. They use a lot of sweet effects like tremelo, delay, and some atmospheric shit i can't even describe without being on acid and believing what I'm talking about was the true.

If you're a fan of Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes, then you'll love this stuff. Excellent vocal melodies, and perfect rock done the right way. Buy this record before any of the overhyped records you keep hearing about this year, because the release is amazing!

- Jon Wark - DecoyMusic.com


"PunkNews.Org Mean Reds Split Review"

3 stars

Buddyhead offers up here a split EP/DVD combo set featuring Los Angeles acts the Mean Reds and Wires on Fire. Each band gets an orignal and a cover song apiece on the compact disc portion with a live set each as well on the DVD offering. For the most part this definitely seems like a "for fans only" type of release, but it definitely has its moments.

Everywhere you go, you'll run into Germs comparisons when reading up on the Mean Reds. And each comparison is well-founded, as the Reds bring to the table the same apathetic, slurred, slowly regurgitated vocals and a dirge of dirty, distorted and completely oversimplified three-chord guitars of L.A. punk. However, the Reds get a bit more noisy, like a grindcore-less Locust; on their two offerings here, the band is a bit less spazzy than their usual material, instead relying on its strange conglomeration of understated electronics, but their punk roots are definitely in the clear. Their "Minor Threat" cover is relatively faithfu--okay, so things get a bit bizzarre in the middle with off-key guitar swaying and pseudo-Mexicana trudging, which is the only way my limited mind can describe it as. It's also pretty interesting to hear the band's Germs-style vocals re-introduce the straight-forward finish of the track that makes for a creative interpretation of the title song from some founding hardcore punk fathers.

Wires on Fire offer up the Stooges-influenced romp in "Million Dollar Maybes," a guitar rock track that makes up the original portion of their contribution. Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" is the cover of choice here, and that classic's theme of rebellion and freedom feels revived here, but not in a modernized way; it seems faithful with the singer screaming the song's title desheviled but freed, and hey, at least he isn't trying to sing like Cher. The saxophone is a nice touch, too.

As for the DVD, we get healthy live sets from both bands. Both are shot without a whole hell of light and the audio is somewhat poor, but you definitely get a good idea of what the bands are about in their primitive setting. "Openers" Wires on Fire thrash around for seven rock'n'roll songs, while "headliners" the Mean Reds entertain their fans with all sorts of half-drunken delight. TMR plays their set half-naked with the singer getting down full for two songs, and audience participation is most definitely encouraged; for singing some parts and, well, matching the physical appearance. Things get a bit GG-like with the singer slicing his stomach at one point, and it makes for even more shame and/or confusion than shock value, but at least they're having fun? Right? I think?

This split may not offer much in the featured audio department length-wise, but what's there isn't shabby, and the video companion makes for some extended time-killing. While I'm not entirely sure I can recommend this to outsiders, fans of either band should be at least fairly pleased with what's coughed up on this little package. - PunkNews.Org


"Alternative Press 100 Bands You Need To Know 2005"

Wires On Fire
HQ: Los Angeles, CA
Check Out: Homewrecker EP (Buddyhead)

There are about a million bands in L.A., so how does one whose members are barely out of high school get noticed? Well, it helps that 999,975 of them are bad. "Everybody's jumping on the latest bandwagon," says singer/guitarist Evan Weiss of his hometown's music scene. "There's so much of that, but we didn't pay that much attention to it." The iconoclasm that set Wires apart emanates from Homewrecker, where garage swagger collides with guitar-fueled power, alternating between restraint and all-out screamy salvos. "I think there's a lot of beautiful and ugly things to [L.A.]," Weiss says. "There are definitely things I don't love about it. It makes for a better relationship with the city and it makes the band more interesting." - Alternative Press Magazine March 2005


Discography

1. Golden Grouper Volume 1 Compilation (Gold Standard Labs) - CD (November 23, 2004) Wires on Fire - Indigo Child

2. Homewrecker (Buddyhead Records) - CD (January 18, 2005)

3. Wires On Fire/ Mean Reds Split CD + DVD (Buddyehad Records)

4. Wires on Fire Self Titled Debut Full Length (Buddyhead Records) - CD (September 2006)

Photos

Bio

I'm not gonna structure this in the normal fashion that bios of rock bands are usually written, because Wires On Fire isn't a normal rock band. The way I see it is; sooner or later you are going to hear Wires On Fire (or better yet, see them play live) and at that moment you'll either get it, or you won't. I hope for your sake you do. My words aren't gonna change the way you feel about your music. What good are my words? I might as well rifle through a jumble of thoughts and ideas that happen to be fresh in my mind in hopes of filling this page up, huh? With that said:

What with the whole "rock revival" thing happening (I read all about it in several "rock" mags recently), and "rock music" being in fashion again (I read about that too in some fashion magazines my girlfriend has), and bands who've been around for no longer than a few months getting multi-million dollar record deals in hopes that they will be the band that smells of teen spirit this generation, you can't help but question the motivations of these "rock bands", can you? You can't throw a rock without hitting a band anymore. People are starting them just to get free drinks at the bar. Record labels too. But don't let this all get you down, I've got some good news for you....

Buddyhead's newest recruits, Wires On Fire, have only the most modest intentions of any rock band you've ever encountered. Their only want is for you to feel a bit of what they're feeling, and to hear what they're playing. For the youth energy that's bottled inside them to spill from their guitars, drums, and bodies and hit you with a sonic tidal wave of volume and rhythm. They'd love nothing more than to leave you sprawled out on the floor, fucked up and soaking wet at the back of some shithole club. Well, maybe that's more unreasonable of an agenda than it should be, but dammit, these kids will sacrifice their well being for your ears, minds, and souls! What more could anyone ask?! It's gonna be a long hard road for these four kids from Los Angeles, but they are more than ready for whatever lies ahead. I sure hope they get to you, like THEY GOT TO ME.

So here's the part where I try and put their sound into words. Wires On Fire take their vast array of influences including Black Sabbath, The Monorchid, Neil Young, The Wipers, The Damned and The Birthday Party and channel them into a combination of sound and energy that's as hard to dismiss, and as impossible to ignore. It sounds how a slap across the face feels. It stings kinda nice. Yes, these guys are young and they have no intention of ever playing the Warped Tour! They're not concerned if a million people hear their music or not! In fact, they love nothing more than playing to a room of sweaty peers. And they actually idolize and listen to REAL bands! Imagine that! Maybe their generation isn't a hopeless wash like we originally thought....

Merely out of high school, these elements have seen Wires On Fire grace the cover of the LA Weekly, book their own tours across the United States, and support such bands as: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Fall, McLusky, Death From Above, Don Caballero, Planes Mistaken For Stars, The Icarus Line, Big Business, and The Dillinger Escape Plan (to mention just a few). All this with nothing more than a demo tape, a whole lot of hunger, fire, venom, and a blistering live performance to their name. Pretty impressive, right? Yeah, these kids rip live!

Things are definitely going to heat up with the new release of their six song debut entitled "Homewrecker" on Buddyhead. Clocking in at just under twenty five minutes, it was recorded by Frances Miranda, known for his work with The Mars Volta, The Icarus Line, 400 Blows, Year Future, and others. Wires On Fire have produced a mere introduction to a legacy in the making. Here comes the get down!