7488 - LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES - Dereconstructed (2014)

LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES
''DERECONSTRUCTED''
MAY 27 2014
35:46

1 - The Company Man 3:18
2 - Dereconstructed 2:30
3 - Burnpiles, Swimming Holes 2:37
4 - The Kudzu And The Concrete 3:31
5 - The Weeds Downtown 4:13
6 - What's Good And Gone 4:25
7 - We Dare Defend Our Rights 3:07
8 - Flags! 2:22
9 - Mississippi Bottomland 4:43
10 - Dirt Track 4:47
All Tracks by Lee Bains III

Lee Bains III /Composer, Guitar, Percussion, Piano, Primary Artist, Vocals
Matt Patton /Bass, Vocals (Background)
Eric Wallace /Guitar
Adam Williamson /Bass, Vocals (Background)
Blake Williamson /Drums, Percussion, Vocals (Background)

REVIEW
Mark Deming
Some musicians are fine with hitting a comfortable middle ground, and others have to push things to the edges, demanding all or nothing. Lee Bains III is clearly the kind of guy who wants to go hard or go home, and after the slightly too polite tone of his first album with the Glory Fires, 2012's There Is a Bomb in Gilead, he's chosen to put the pedal to the metal with his sophomore effort, 2014's Dereconstructed. Bains clearly wanted this album to rawk, and that's just what it does -- the guitars from Bains and Eric Wallace bark and wail at every turn, and the rhythm section of bassist Adam Williamson and drummer Blake Williamson (who play tight enough that it makes perfect sense that they're brothers) drives these tunes like a big block Hemi in fifth gear. Dereconstructed has all the sweat and swagger you could hope for, and the tunes are full-on hot-rodded Southern rock, melodic but full of scrappy fire and fist-pumping force. But while Dereconstructed rocks hard, it ultimately hits a little too hard in the wrong ways. Producer Tim Kerr has overdriven the guitars far enough into the red zone that they sound like a fuzzy and distorted mess after a while, while the mix by Bains and Jeremy Ferguson pushes those guitars so far to the front that Bains' vocals are barely audible (and given his strength as a lyricist, that's a truly lamentable choice). Dereconstructed works despite the audio -- Bains and the Glory Fires are clearly a first-class rock band that can deliver the goods, and these tracks capture them in raucous form, while the songs are even stronger than the very fine material on their debut. But while Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires may be a great rock & roll band, they haven't quite cracked the code on making a great album, at least in terms of audio, and Dereconstructed manages to be impressive, encouraging, and frustrating at the same time.
------------------------------
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
By Jonathan Poneman
What awaits you when the needle drops on Dereconstructed, the new album by Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires? Nothing less than pure fucking heaven, that’s what.

Consider the record’s opener, “The Company Man.” It revs up with a riff sleazy enough to clog Rod Stewart’s stomach pump as an incantation that only a Yellowhammer can truly understand is bellowed and then screamed. Before you know it, the joint is hotter than a Birmingham soaking pit while you, the listener, are reminded, lest you forget, don’t ever trust the company man.

No shit.

Dereconstructed is a careening, road raging, all night party of a record. Informed by a distinctly southern hoodoo, it is a master class in authentic Gulf Coast choogle. Having cut his teeth in the Dexateens, Lee Bains lll has been properly schooled in how to throw down, so much so that even his hyper literate musings are no match for the blown out distortion that gives this record its blistering urgency.

Songs like “The Kudzu and the Concrete,” “Dirt Track” and the roaring, blissfully shambolic title track could be anthems looking for a stadium, but they’re also reminders as to why Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires are such a formidable party machine. If your hometown is graced with a scuzzy dive and a few warm bodies to populate it, you’d best believe that the Glory Fires have been there, or are on their way back.

Dereconstructed is Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires’ debut for Sub Pop Records. It is preceded by the band’s actual debut, There Is a Bomb in Gilead, on Alive Natural-Sound Records (2012).

Dereconstructed was produced by Tim Kerr, and engineered by Jeremy Ferguson at Battle Tapes, Nashville, TN.

Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires will be featured performers at the 14th annual NONCOMMvention, hosted by WXPN in Philadelphia, PA, May 14 – 16, 2014. This performance will be followed by extensive touring, radio sessions, and in-stores throughout North America. A late-summer European tour will be announced shortly.

Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires are:
Lee Bains lll: Guitar and Vox
Eric Wallace: Guitar
Adam Williamson: Bass
Blake Williamson: Drums
The band resides in Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL.

OFFICIAL SITE

3691 - LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES - There Is A Bomb In Gilead (2012)

LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES
''THERE IS A BOMB IN GILEAD''
MAY 15 2012
38:45

1. Ain't No Stranger/4:25
2. Centreville/3:00
3. Reba/3:24
4. Choctaw Summer/3:02
5. Magic City Stomp!/2:23
6. Everything You Took/3:48
7. Righteous, Ragged Songs/3:07
8. The Red, Red Dirt of Home/4:12
9. Roebuck Parkway/2:51
10. Opelika/4:06
11. There is a Bomb in Gilead/4:28

Lee Bains III /Guitar, Keyboards, Theremin, Vocals
Lynn Bridges /Percussion
Justin Colburn /Bass, Hollers
Trey McLemore /Vocals
Matt Patton /Hollers
Blake Williamson /Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Matt Wurtele /Guitar, Hollers

REVIEW
by Mark Deming
Lee Bains III is a proud son of the state of Alabama, and he also studied literature in New York for a spell, and you can hear evidence of both on There Is a Bomb in Gilead, his debut album with his band the Glory Fires. Between the twang in Bains' voice, the twang in his guitars, and the plaintive howl of the melodies, this music is Southern by the grace of God, and Bains and his bandmates -- guitarist Matt Wurtele, bassist Justin Colburn, and drummer Blake Williamson -- aren't afraid to show their colors, whether it's on the R&B-influenced groove of "Everything You Took," the C&W weeper "Reba," the old-school Southern rock strut of "Righteous, Ragged Songs," or the high-speed buzz of "Centreville." While Bains talks a good game about punk rock in his lyrics, this music is less about high-velocity grit than the homey texture of red dirt, and the band's instincts and feel are pretty undeniable here, sounding as natural and as potent as a jar of iced tea and bourbon. But Bains also knows how to tell a good, compelling story with an interesting set of characters, and he successfully walks a fine line between letting his literate instincts have their day and keeping these stories unpretentious and realistic, and if losing your Ramones T-shirt and your Walker Percy novels to your ex-girlfriend seems like especially bad luck, in this context it makes sense. For a debut album, There Is a Bomb in Gilead sounds remarkably confident and assured, and Bains and the Glory Fires clearly know how to write fine songs and make them move in the studio; this is a band worth watching, and an album that deserves your attention.

BIOGRAPHY
by Mark Deming Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires are an Alabama-based rock band whose music is informed by the swagger of classic Southern rock, the energy and attitude of punk, the intelligence and personal lyrical stance of indie rock, and the deep grooves of R&B. The group was formed in 2010 by guitarist, lead vocalist, and principal songwriter Lee Bains III. Born and bred in Alabama, Bains attended a Christian school as a child and his first musical experiences came from singing in church. In his teens, Bains developed an interested in writing, and he studied literature at a college in New York, but when he returned to Alabama, he re-focused his attention on music. Bains was a big fan of Tuscaloosa's Southern rock revivalists the Dexateens, and in 2008 he joined the group as a guitarist. Bains spent two years with the Dexateens, but in 2010 the group went on hiatus, and Bains began launching a new project.
While in the Dexateens, Bains and some friends from Birmingham's Glen Iris neighborhood had formed an acoustic group to play old-school gospel tunes at a local homeless shelter, taking up the name the Glen Iris Glorifiers. The name soon evolved into the Glory Fires, and Bains revived the handle for his post-Dexateens group. Recruiting guitarist Matt Wurtele, bassist Justin Colburn (formerly of Arkadelphia and Model Citizen), and drummer Blake Williamson (who had worked with Taylor Hollingsworth, Dan Sartain, and Black Willis), the new combo began hitting the Alabama club circuit. While Bains was offered a songwriting contract as a solo act, he opted to stick with the band, and they began drawing an impressive following in the Southern states. After cutting an album-length demo with producer Tim Kerr, Bains and the Glory Fires signed a deal with Alive Naturalsound Records, and went into the studio with producer and engineer Lynn Bridges to begin work on their first LP. Recorded by Bridges in Water Valley, Mississippi and mixed by Jim Diamond in Detroit, the Glory Fires' debut album, There Is a Bomb in Gilead (the title came from Bains' childhood misunderstanding of an old gospel lyric), was released in the spring of 2012.

DoWnLoAd