FIREWATER
''INTERNATIONAL ORANGE''
SEPTEMBER 11 2012
46:18
1 - A Little Revolution 3:29
2 - Glitter Days 5:01
3 - Dead Man's Boots 3:54
4 - Up From The Underground 3:21
5 - The Monkey Song 4:07
6 - Ex-Millionaire Mambo 3:55
7 - Feeling No Pain 4:42
8 - Strange Life 4:09
9 - Nowhere To Be Found 4:32
10 - Tropical Depression 3:56
11 - The Bonney Anne 4:52
All Tracks By Tod Ashley
Tod Ashley – vocals, electric guitar, melodica, bongos, loops, arrangement, production, photography, design
Yonadav Halevy – drums, percussion
Stefano Iascone – trumpet
Çosar Kamçı – darbuka, daf
Uri Brauner Kinrot – electric guitar
Massimo Piredda – trombone
Adam Scheflan – bass guitar
Johnny Kalsi – dhol and loops on "The Monkey Song"
Tamir Muskat – drums on "A Little Revolution", percussion on "Glitter Days" and "Strange Life"
Marco Pampaluna – horn arrangement on "Glitter Days" and "The Monkey Song"
Ferdi Seçkin – zurna on "Glitter Days" and "Strange Life"
Nimrod Talmon – trombone on "A Little Revolution" and "Dead Man's Boots", melodica on "Nowhere to Be Found"
Itamar Ziegler – bass guitar on "A Little Revolution"
REVIEW
by Heather Phares
Bad times can make for good art, and the revolutionary feel of the early 2010s -- the Occupy movement, and especially the Arab Spring -- are at the heart of Firewater's International Orange! Firewater frontman Tod A. recorded this album in Istanbul and Tel Aviv during the 2011 riots, and there's a vital energy in these songs that is almost palpable. Even better, the sense of humor that was downplayed on the band's previous few albums is back in full force, giving the album's first half a bright, buoyant theatricality suggesting that International Orange! could be a musical about those tumultuous times. The album's first four songs are so strong and impassioned that they'd be worth the price of admission on their own. "A Little Revolution" kicks off the proceedings with purposeful mischief; "Dead Man's Boots" puts the "party" back in political party with lumbering ska-punk as it reminds listeners to seize the good times even when things seem to be at their worst; "Up from the Underground" sounds like the theme song for a rag-tag gang of revolutionaries; and "Glitter Days" boasts A.'s more typical sardonic outlook as well as some great imagery ("my life is a toothache"). Throughout International Orange!, Firewater blends sounds from different cultures -- bhangra, ska, rebetiko -- into melodies and rhythms that lope, swing, and punch, but as the album unfolds, its dynamic yang gives way to a rootless, restless yin on songs such as "Strange Life," which distantly echoes "Paint It, Black" as it dives into the shadows that always seem to be lurking around the corners in Firewater's world. Even "Tropical Depression"'s cleverly kitschy outburst holds emptiness inside of it like the eye of a hurricane. By the time "The Bonney Anne" brings International Orange! to a close, it undercuts much of the previous jollity, leaving listeners feeling haunted and unresolved. This emotional roller coaster makes the album that much more intriguing, though, and if it's not Firewater's finest album, then it's certainly one of the band's most carefully crafted and listenable ones.
BIOGRAPHY
by Johnny Loftus
New York-based band Firewater incorporated a global range of musical influences into their highly dynamic sound. A loosely knit ensemble centered around the lead vocals of ex-Cop Shoot Cop bass player Tod A. (born: Tod Ashley), Firewater tied together such influences as Klezmer, Indian wedding music, art-punk, and Tom Waits-style cabaret poetry to create their heady, often quite danceable sound. Coupled with Tod A.'s acerbic, post-apocalyptic, and death-obsessed lyrics, Firewater was a band to be reckoned with almost from the beginning.
Shortly after forming in 1995, Firewater released its debut, Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire. Both it and 1998's The Ponzi Scheme featured guitarist Duane Denison of Jesus Lizard, drummer Yuval Gabay of Soul Coughing, and saxophone and accordion player Kurt Hofmann of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The sultry vocals of Elysian Fields' Jennifer Charles also drifted through both albums. Charles returned for 2001's more pop-oriented Psychopharmacology; other contributions came from saxophonist Ori Kaplan and sitar player Oren Bloedow. In 2003, Tod A. and his "wedding band gone wrong" returned with a stripped-down, razor-wire-wrapped effort for Jet Set entitled The Man on the Burning Tightrope. The covers album Songs We Should Have Written appeared early the following year. Tod A. then went on an extended trek through Thailand, India, Pakistan, Turkey ,and Indonesia, which he chronicled on his blog Postcards from the Other Side of the World. A. also recorded music on his travels, collaborating with producer Tamir Muskat and local musicians along the way. The results were The Golden Hour, which Bloodshot Records released in spring 2008. After touring in support of that album, A. settled in Istanbul, and recorded there and in Tel Aviv during 2011's Arab Spring, reuniting with Muskat as a collaborator. International Orange arrived in September 2012.
''INTERNATIONAL ORANGE''
SEPTEMBER 11 2012
46:18
1 - A Little Revolution 3:29
2 - Glitter Days 5:01
3 - Dead Man's Boots 3:54
4 - Up From The Underground 3:21
5 - The Monkey Song 4:07
6 - Ex-Millionaire Mambo 3:55
7 - Feeling No Pain 4:42
8 - Strange Life 4:09
9 - Nowhere To Be Found 4:32
10 - Tropical Depression 3:56
11 - The Bonney Anne 4:52
All Tracks By Tod Ashley
Tod Ashley – vocals, electric guitar, melodica, bongos, loops, arrangement, production, photography, design
Yonadav Halevy – drums, percussion
Stefano Iascone – trumpet
Çosar Kamçı – darbuka, daf
Uri Brauner Kinrot – electric guitar
Massimo Piredda – trombone
Adam Scheflan – bass guitar
Johnny Kalsi – dhol and loops on "The Monkey Song"
Tamir Muskat – drums on "A Little Revolution", percussion on "Glitter Days" and "Strange Life"
Marco Pampaluna – horn arrangement on "Glitter Days" and "The Monkey Song"
Ferdi Seçkin – zurna on "Glitter Days" and "Strange Life"
Nimrod Talmon – trombone on "A Little Revolution" and "Dead Man's Boots", melodica on "Nowhere to Be Found"
Itamar Ziegler – bass guitar on "A Little Revolution"
REVIEW
by Heather Phares
Bad times can make for good art, and the revolutionary feel of the early 2010s -- the Occupy movement, and especially the Arab Spring -- are at the heart of Firewater's International Orange! Firewater frontman Tod A. recorded this album in Istanbul and Tel Aviv during the 2011 riots, and there's a vital energy in these songs that is almost palpable. Even better, the sense of humor that was downplayed on the band's previous few albums is back in full force, giving the album's first half a bright, buoyant theatricality suggesting that International Orange! could be a musical about those tumultuous times. The album's first four songs are so strong and impassioned that they'd be worth the price of admission on their own. "A Little Revolution" kicks off the proceedings with purposeful mischief; "Dead Man's Boots" puts the "party" back in political party with lumbering ska-punk as it reminds listeners to seize the good times even when things seem to be at their worst; "Up from the Underground" sounds like the theme song for a rag-tag gang of revolutionaries; and "Glitter Days" boasts A.'s more typical sardonic outlook as well as some great imagery ("my life is a toothache"). Throughout International Orange!, Firewater blends sounds from different cultures -- bhangra, ska, rebetiko -- into melodies and rhythms that lope, swing, and punch, but as the album unfolds, its dynamic yang gives way to a rootless, restless yin on songs such as "Strange Life," which distantly echoes "Paint It, Black" as it dives into the shadows that always seem to be lurking around the corners in Firewater's world. Even "Tropical Depression"'s cleverly kitschy outburst holds emptiness inside of it like the eye of a hurricane. By the time "The Bonney Anne" brings International Orange! to a close, it undercuts much of the previous jollity, leaving listeners feeling haunted and unresolved. This emotional roller coaster makes the album that much more intriguing, though, and if it's not Firewater's finest album, then it's certainly one of the band's most carefully crafted and listenable ones.
BIOGRAPHY
by Johnny Loftus
New York-based band Firewater incorporated a global range of musical influences into their highly dynamic sound. A loosely knit ensemble centered around the lead vocals of ex-Cop Shoot Cop bass player Tod A. (born: Tod Ashley), Firewater tied together such influences as Klezmer, Indian wedding music, art-punk, and Tom Waits-style cabaret poetry to create their heady, often quite danceable sound. Coupled with Tod A.'s acerbic, post-apocalyptic, and death-obsessed lyrics, Firewater was a band to be reckoned with almost from the beginning.
Shortly after forming in 1995, Firewater released its debut, Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire. Both it and 1998's The Ponzi Scheme featured guitarist Duane Denison of Jesus Lizard, drummer Yuval Gabay of Soul Coughing, and saxophone and accordion player Kurt Hofmann of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The sultry vocals of Elysian Fields' Jennifer Charles also drifted through both albums. Charles returned for 2001's more pop-oriented Psychopharmacology; other contributions came from saxophonist Ori Kaplan and sitar player Oren Bloedow. In 2003, Tod A. and his "wedding band gone wrong" returned with a stripped-down, razor-wire-wrapped effort for Jet Set entitled The Man on the Burning Tightrope. The covers album Songs We Should Have Written appeared early the following year. Tod A. then went on an extended trek through Thailand, India, Pakistan, Turkey ,and Indonesia, which he chronicled on his blog Postcards from the Other Side of the World. A. also recorded music on his travels, collaborating with producer Tamir Muskat and local musicians along the way. The results were The Golden Hour, which Bloodshot Records released in spring 2008. After touring in support of that album, A. settled in Istanbul, and recorded there and in Tel Aviv during 2011's Arab Spring, reuniting with Muskat as a collaborator. International Orange arrived in September 2012.
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