Dominic Bartolini
Ryan Luby
Mark Wynegar
Gregg D. Silverman
Sounds Like
Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse, Fugazi, Radiohead, Sleater-Kinney, the Pixies, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, U2, The Who, the Killers, Jeff Buckley, Sparta, Queens Of The Stone Age, the Strokes, Doves, Death Cab For Cutie, Pearl Jam, Built to Spill, Nirvana, the Walkmen, Interpol, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Mineral, Jets To Brazil, Jimmy Eat World
The influence that very successful indie bands like Interpol have on the music scene always tends to be bi-fold: at first you get the early emulators - real clones of the more successful band - and then, after a few years, you get the artists that develop that same sound in new directions. Brooklynites Who By Fire (awesome name by the way) seem to belong to the latter category, relating somewhat to Interpol's attitude and overall atmospheres, but taking that sound in new unexpected places, with a slightly more aggressive and faster sound. - PDG"
-The Deli Magazine, Published on Thu, 18 Jan 2007
"From what I've seen of their short history as a band, Brooklyn-based Who By Fire haven't played that many shows, in fact they don't even have a website aside from their Myspace page (where you can find two tracks - all the recorded material the band has to show for itself). Typically this sort of behavior will keep me far away from a band, as if they don't seem "serious" enough, but here I make an exception.
Recently the band was featured on The Deli Magazine's blog, where Paolo (the Deli's editor) fixated on the band's similarities to groups like Interpol. They do tend to douse their beat-heavy rock songs in reverb and delay and sing dramatically, but what wasn't mentioned there (likely their only press thus far) was that there's an apparent grunge influence when things get a little heavier, in the same way that other locals like Goes Cube and Morning Theft (who are by far the most akin to Who By Fire at least in terms of aesthetics - maybe the two should think about playing together...) have been showing that not everybody making music in NYC these days is fixated on the music of the 70's and early 80's.
It wasn't looking promising a few years ago when a new breed of "grunge" bands came along, detuning guitars and growling through their Kurt-ish locks and 5 O'clock shadows that did little more than mimic their influences. What the bands I've just mentioned have done is taken that influence (which if you think about, was probably popular right when they were becoming interested in music, the formative years I suppose) so there's been a good amount of time to absorb it and even move on, such that the influence remained and informed what they're doing now, even if it's not intentional, and that's a good thing."
Checked out the page here... it's too bad I never had a chance to see you all play. You'll have to let me know about any future things you're getting into now that Who by Fire has come to rest.
you've been hiding these songs away and NOW you put them up? wow, thanks. they sound really amazing! i really like those guitar sounds on Long Way, and the acoustic on Police Me. Dudes, I am really mad you're done.
-Eric
