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Larkin Grimm | Parplar
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Brainwashed.com | John Kealy Some CDs beg to be played over and over again. http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7268&Itemid=64 This is one of those times when the disc absolutely refuses to go back into its case and demands to go back in the player. Normally I cannot listen to an album more than once a day but Larkin Grimm's third album makes for a rare exception. It is perfectly performed and the recording itself is flawless, this is one of those rare albums that impresses from every conceivable angle. Grimm’s music is as oddball (in a good way) as her description on the Young God Records website makes her out to be (brought up in a cult, tales of the Alaskan wastes, a shamaness and a vagabond lifestyle either make for a very interesting person or a highly contrived back story; Grimm seems genuine). There are no pretensions of weirdness here, just the feeling that she knows her own path but it does not necessarily cross with the main road. Label mates Fire On Fire play on the album, as do members of the Angels of Light, which makes for a familiar mood from the offset but that is not to say that Grimm’s......
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Fire on Fire | The Orchard
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thebollard.com | Tom Flynn part campfire sing-along and part séancehttp://www.thebollard.com/bollard/?p=4222 Time flies. It’s been about a year and a half since Fire on Fire signed with Michael Gira’s Young God Records (home of Devendra Banhart, Lisa Germano, Akron/Family, and Gira’s own Swans and Angels of Light projects, among others). Late last year, the label released 5 Song EP, a collection that served as Fire on Fire’s introduction to a national audience. The response was unanimous and enthusiastic praise. This should come as no surprise to Portlanders. The five musicians who comprise the band — Caleb Mulkerin, Chriss Sutherland, Colleen Kinsella, Tom Kovacevic, and Micah Blue Smaldone — are responsible, collectively and individually, for some of the most original and intriguing music to emerge from Portland in the past 10 years. These folks have a reputation for pouring their hearts into their art, and Fire on Fire’s long-awaited full-length debut is no exception. Capturing the vibe of a Fire on Fire live gig, The Orchard is part campfire sing-along and part séance, 12 songs sung by friends to friends about getting by in this fucked-up world. The album was initially recorded at the band’s home more than two years ago by......
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Fire on Fire - Ripe pickings in The Orchard
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The Phoenix / Portland, Maine | CHRISTOPHER GRAYColleen Kinsella proves herself The Orchard's vibrant hearthttp://thephoenix.com/Portland/Music/73930-Five-for-fighting/ It's hard not to envy the many, far-flung listeners who will have their first exposure to Fire on Fire through The Orchard, the band's full-length debut on Michael Gira's Young God Records. Granting their taste for the clamor of five raw, loud voices singing raucous folk songs in theatrically exaggerated harmony, the experience is likely to be a kick. For those of us who have been following the group since they mutated away from their not-so-humble beginnings in Cerberus Shoal, The Orchard arrives in our mailboxes (order your copy of the 1000-edition run from younggodrecords.com) with a thud and, an hour later, a grateful sigh of relief. The band's songwriters-in-the-round ethic seems almost coyly misleading here, as most of these songs only become fully formed with the entire group's input. "Sirocco" begins with plaintive moans and a jaunty arrangement of banjo, upright bass, and accordion. Caleb Mulkerin's trenchant, foreboding howls ("Paradise we agreed was a portrait of the two of us/While the pictures are fragile and the ivy is taking the trees") breathlessly slash through the harmonies. Colleen Kinsella•Colleen Kinsella•Chriss Sutherland•more >> A standby of......
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Larkin Grimm – Parplar
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incendiarymag.com | Richard Foster Yet another blinding release from Young Godhttp://www.incendiarymag.com http://www.incendiarymag.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1965 Posted on Tuesday, December 16 ... possibly America’s greatest record label at the moment? I wouldn’t bet against it. This LP showcases the considerable talents of Larkin Grimm, who is a singular young lady by all accounts. Simply put, you should listen to this LP just for the voice alone. Grimm can hold you in a spell with her brilliant imaginative ramblings; and she doesn’t half come up with some rum subject matter…That she also writes brilliant tracks is a massive bonus. Once past the quiet opener They Were Wrong, Grimm expands upon a formidable array of fantastic notions. Ride That Cyclone and Blond and Golden Johns are warped lullabies of considerable menace, with mention of broken hearts, sexual fantasies and utter destruction, all topped off with the merest hint that Grimm imagines herself to be a witch. The jaunty Mina Minou is similarly spooky. It’s not all dark, Dominican Rum and My Justine are jovial enough, (with the odd hint of Scissor Sister daftness) and Be My Host has considerable charm, despite the woozy tempo and impenetrable mystery of the song itself. To be honest it’s......
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Fire on Fire | The Orchard
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Angela Zimmerman | Crawdaddy MagazineFire on Fire takes the listener on a ride through the sheer joys and woes of the human experiencehttp://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/Review/Fire-on-Fire-The-Orchard.html On a national level, the music scene up in Maine seems to be under the radar; I, for one, am not up on the happenings in the nation’s far Northeast corner. Enter South Portland, Maine, a town of just over 20,000 residents that rests along the rustic and rugged shoreline of one of America’s most scenic states. From this residential community hails the band Fire on Fire, whose dizzying array of freak folk and Americana has been captured quite beautifully on their first full-length, The Orchard. The record is cohesive enough that it’s stamped with a deliberate thematic quality, but its density and rich stylistic qualities enables the album to naturally flow and change direction, showcasing a depth and precociousness that is not present in many of Fire on Fire’s contemporaries. Perhaps it’s because, according to the band’s bio on the Young God website, “All five friends live together in a big blue house across from green oil tank # 28 in South Portland, Maine,” that they are able to reign in a delicate musical synergy and......