"The only way I can really sum it up is like this: Have you ever taken mushrooms? fire island, AK sounds like the part where you think that you will never feel normal again or that you are probably dying, but you still want to do mushrooms. That is what fire island, AK is like." - YoungCreature
"There is no audience that would pay to listen to [noise]. There are, however, lots of people that come out to our shows." - a Hub-Bub employee (Spartanburg, SC)
"these tapes are EXCELLENT! Thanks so much." - Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes)
"You know how there are times when you have that very specific kind of dream that isn’t quite a nightmare — nothing specifically bad happens — but nonetheless you still wake up feeling significantly, if not entirely justifiably, disturbed? Sometimes, those dreams can even be relatively close to reality, but the details just off enough to feel desperately wrong: Your lover’s face with a smile that suddenly seems cruel; your home suddenly having rooms filled with broken toys from your childhood; a dead relative suddenly showing up to give you unasked for relationship advice." - Steve Shanafelt (Spartanburg Spark)
"Oh, how can I get one of those Thomas Boettner works? Can fans write to him plaintively or something? His work sounds so incredibly good." - Dennis Cooper (author, God Jr., Closer)
"THANK YOU FOR THE AMAZING MUSIC!!!" - Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle)
"[Murmur & Belial] is so spooky! i cant tell if its half drone sludge gore electronic insanity or if my tape player is too old to play things correctly. i love it so much!! i have to listen to it again with headphones. ... i like this insane noise, it sounds like i'm on a mountaintop somewhere. ... the quality of your products are incredible! ... everything is great!! the insane music! the black boxes, stickers, diamonds, little notes, INSANE, where do you make all of this? ... you're like a 19th century shopkeeper who makes tapes instead of cobbles shoes!!??! this is like a fucking little gemstone puzzle!! like some fucking weird talisman! now i have these two black nondistinct boxes on my dresser with strange shiny sides and evil looking pictures on them, that both hold evil noise and evil spell-notes. this little conceptual box is EVIL EVIL EVIL!!!! ... these last two tapes you sent me are MARVELOUS little things." - Antonio U. (Ponyboy, Godbless)
"[Murmur & Belial] is such a wide range of sounds and tones, yet it manages to take me to the same place. not necessarily the songs, but the entire album gives me a similar trip as Black One [by Sunn O)))], Total destruction, debauchery, mayhem, decay, and death rattles!"
- Erler (of The Gentle Suit, Greenville, SC)
"[Rectal Fascism] was amazing to listen to while web surfing... made every new page seem like it was going to kill me. Menacing. Glorious." - Richard R. (NYC)
"I Moved Away has become essential night time/early morning listening. I was listening to Xiu Xiu today and realized how similar your voice sounds to [Jamie Stewart's] in parts of that album." - Tony (ACOSM Records, England)
"thomas, when i was returning from my spring break trip to montréal i traveled through airport security, removed my shows, emptied my pockets, the usual. i placed my laptop in a bin to be screened for explosives and such when the security guard bent down and peered at it for a few moments before asking 'what is this.. fire.. island?'
oh geez i had to explain it was a musicmaker, and he let me know that The Arcade Fire had just come through recently. 'neat,' i said
a black sticker on my laptop with the words 'fire,' 'depression' and 'worst' almost implicated me as a terrorist!" - A.Z. (Miss Ohio's Nameless, South Carolina)
hey, thanks!! yeah that sounds great! we would love to play a show with you in Charleston. we don't have any shows available at the moment but when we do, you'll be the first to play! cheers!
