Amo - Sings and guitars and sleeplessness;
Brian - bass guitars and makes sense;
Terry - drums too loud
Influences
Amo has no musical influences because he doesn't like/listen to music. Terry refuses to admit that he has any influences, probably because "eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt." Brian is conversely reinfluenced by Myspace and Facebook.
Open Choir Fire are this week’s Band of the Week. Here’s why:
First of all, as their Stranger Bands Page attests, a drunk guy once told them they “are all scientific and shit like the Sea and Cake, except not so pussy!” One point.
Secondly, the first song they have posted, “Things You Have to Do,” reminds me of a more post-rock Mclusky via D.C., and I really like Mclusky, and I really like post-rock from D.C. Two points.
With the first song going over well, I listened to the next song, “Candle,” and that boasts a little more of a Jawbox vibe, and I love Jawbox. Three points.
While I do hear tinges of those bands in their sound, they’re not rippin’ anything off. In fact, the band claims to be inspired by a whole range of artists like the Pixies, Talking Heads, and Fugazi, and I can hear elements of all those artists in just the few songs they’ve got available, but they’re all done with the band’s own style. Four points.
Finally, they’re funny and they put up with my fangirl questions. Five points, FTW! (Megan Seling)
Seattle Sound Magazine (May/June 2006):
Open Choir Fire's debut EP assembles a richly diverse collection of sounds and styles. By turns, it reverts to the screeching guitars and guttural screams of early Modest Mouse, Pixie-esque plodding progressions, and the fusion of syrupy pop rhythms and up-tempo beats. Amo DelBello's embittered vocals sound almost exactly like Aveo's William Wilson, so it's difficult to tell with which of these styles the band ultimately wants to identify. If Open Choir Fire simply subsists as an amorphous amalgamation of them all, the resulting dynamicism will undoubtedly win them fans. (Katie Sauro)
Missoula Independent (11/15/07):
Despite easy comparisons to early “alt” bands like the Pixies, this Seattle-based trio is, in reality, not so derivative. Though it all sounds a little familiar, what really emanates from Open Choir Fire’s new EP is an instinct for eclectic textures and mood creation.
For instance, “Oh Grace” begins like a lone prayer cradled in heavy guitar riffs, but when the backup vocals emerge in an angelic round-like style, it actually sounds like a choral piece. Even when singer/guitarist Amo DelBello breaks into the kind of gravelly growl you might hear from a death metal band, the lyrics stay graceful and the melody remains in an Elysian realm. “Candle” is a bit duskier, bound by a heavy bassline—something like “Sesame Street” gone ghost town. Almost every line of the song ends with DelBello asking, “How do you know?” sung in slithering minor key and punctuated by a disconcerting bark.
These details are what distinguish Open Choir Fire from the mountain of self-serious indie rockers who think affected vocals and cryptic songwriting is the ultimate goal. It’s a sample of solid craftsmanship, a preview of what they could do with a full-length venture. (Erika Fredrickson)
Weekly Volcano (Tacoma, Dec. 2006):
For those about to art rock your indie grungy emo folk, Bobble Tiki salutes you. Open Choir Fire! Seattle trio Open Choir Fire's mother tongue is alternative, but as the once-supple dialect of alternative has hardened over the years into a rigid paradigm, Open Choir Fire has smoothly eluded its grasp - by inventing a new language. Hell, Bobble Tiki doesn't know what to call it. Guitarist/vocalist Amo DelBello, drummer Terry Kyte, and bassist Brian Massey construct a brilliant, rockin', quirky and sweet sound in their new album, In Each Appropriate Everlasting and Not, often in the same song. It's Talking Heads inventive. It's Kings of Leon soulful. It's Pixies rockin'. It's Open Choir Fire. (Bobble Tiki)
CD Baby (2006):
While Open Choir Fire leaves hints of the Pixies, Fugazi and Jawbox on the brain, their focal point is one of distilled inspiration without extraneous additives and preservatives, without imitation and derivative writing. With an ability to be simultaneously jerky and abrupt, screamy and excitable as well as helplessly pretty and effortlessly sweet, the broad palette they draw from spins quite an album of color and style from grunge to indie to emo and back, all the while pulling their listeners along like a fish hook through the navel. Yes, there is something raw and gutsy, brash and unapologetic driving these songs but in only five tracks, this group stirs up some serious fun.
The Seattle Times (3/31/06):
A new band: Open Choir Fire.
Based on a five-song EP, OCF has the potential to be one of the more vigorous rock bands around Seattle.
Open Choir Fire landed a top-notch producer — Johnny Sangster (Mudhoney, Murder City Devils), at Egg Studios — to track its new EP, "In Each Appropriate, Everlasting and Not. " While the title leans toward pretentious, the album avoids the cute: Its five songs are forward-moving, driving toward a goal ... even if the goal is not always spelled out in black and white. The sound at various times faintly echoes early Modest Mouse, Juno's moody urgency, a few dashes of Queens of the Stone Age — singer Amo DelBello sounds a bit like QOTSA's Josh Homme. (Tom Scanlon)
KEXP, 90.3 FM (Seattle, June 2006):
Seattle's Open Choir Fire deal with contrasts on their new EP, In Each Appropriate Everlasting and Not. Angular guitars and shout-sung vocals lean toward a spooky minor chord vibe, but always bring it back to more optomistic major chord resolutions. The effect is at once off-puttingly exciting and comfortingly familiar. Lead track "Things You Have to Do" is the band's best foot forward with strafing guitar attacks over repetitively bouncy bass and drums with anthemic vocals closing out the onslaught. The uptempo numbers tend to be stronger, but there's not a weak song here. (Abe Beeson)
Here's some nice folks (total strangers!) from the CD Baby website:
More than the Sum (author: CHINASKI) Combining 80’s D.C. hardcore, the jerky rhythms of The Pixies, and the guitar fireworks of Sonic Youth, Open Choir Fire create melodic and catchy post-punk music that is more than the sum of their influences. The best song on their EP is the first track “Things You Have to Do,” which opens with a Motorhead guitar riff and then starts and stops like The Pixies produced by the DFA.
I likes me some ocf author: the graze Open Choir Fire is a great band, and they're especially good live. This CD captures their live energy in all its glory, while the performances remain flawlessly executed and produced. That's quite a trick. Each song on this CD is fantastic, though "Oh Grace" is probably my favorite.
Not sure if the songs on the site are new, but they are awesome. Don't forget your practice space mates when you guys are super big and famous. We are happy to ride coat tails.
dudes! awesome show and the cd's are going to be on constant play for about 390 weeks. holy crap...thanks again and looking forward to more shows. that food and all the fat we chewed pre-show was a nice plus--thanks for that invite!
Congrats on winning that Zig Zag contest! Don't forget us small folk on your way up to the top. We'll be the Dillon Fence to your Hootie and the Blowfish ;)
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