Tag: Tod A

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A Good Read, a Good Listen, and a Good Drink: Firewater

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

Now, we again take up the story of Firewater. When we left our hero (or is that anti-hero?) Tod A, we feared his rock ‘n’ roll boat might have capsized in the international seas of music. But, wait! We have a transmission from Istanbul! It’s a coded message, saying, “International Orange!”

Okay, enough purple prose. Here’s the deal: Firewater has a new album out called International Orange!. Recorded and mixed in Istanbul, Turkey, (where Tod A now lives) and Tel Aviv, Israel, during the Arab Spring of 2011, International Orange! brings back together the team of Tod A and Balkan Beat Box’s Tamir Muskat, who birthed Firewater’s last powerfully rocking album, The Golden Hour. Though still backed by Tod A’s acerbity, the album is punctuated by the passionate optimism of revolution and full-to-brimming with international rhythms. International Orange! tours Turkey, Greece, Pakistan, Cuba, Jamaica, Greece, picking up trinkets of each country’s sound as it goes, melds them with the American and British fire of punk and rock, and sets it all down in a package that will have you clearing space for pogoing.

 

“A Little Revolution” – Firewater (download from link or listen below)

 

Now it is my giddy honor to hand the reins over to Tod A for another installment of inspiring recommendations.

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The following can be enjoyed simultaneously, ideally underneath a palm tree on a tropical island.

Good Read:
The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
Forget the Johnny Depp film debacle: he completely missed the point. This book holds some of HST’s best barbs about human nature. A choice quote: “Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles — a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other-that kept me going.”

 

Good Listen:
Essential Ska Masters by The Skatalites
If you’ve never heard this amazing early sixties instrumental ska band, this record is a great place to start. Everything you probably love about jazz, with minimum wank, and plenty of skanky groove to get your hips shaking. Every cut is a winner.

 

“Confucius” – The Skatalites

 

Good Drink:
Arak Madu
Fill a tall glass with ice and one teaspoon of honey. Pour in three fingers of Indonesian arak, then top up the glass with fresh orange juice. Stir. Drink and repeat.

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Make sure to check out Firewater on the road for a show that is told to be un-fucking-missable.
 

Firewater @ Bloodshot Records

Firewater @ Facebook

Firewater Geocache Challenge

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Firewater: The Story So Far…

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Let me get this out of the way first: Cop Shoot Cop was a fucking rad band. When I was introduced to their music, via their album Ask Questions Later, I had the experience that music lovers rummage through record shops, plunder blogs, and scan magazines seeking to replicate again and again: I found a band who was making exactly the kind of music I wanted to hear. Dual basses, steel wool vocals, no guitar, and a lot of anger: it was heavenly.

The hard truth of the matter, though, was that CSC had ended before I discovered them. In fact, lead man Tod A was already two albums deep in Firewater… though I wouldn’t learn about Firewater for a few more years when I was stopped in my tracks by “This Is My Life”.

 

“This Is My Life” – Firewater

 

Tod A was once again giving me exactly what I wanted, and it’s impossible to sit still during this song, which came from the sixth Firewater album (and first one released on the Bloodshot label) The Golden Hour. If you, too, missed the beginning of the Firewater train, Bloodshot has given you a hand up by reissuing four of the first five Firewater albums: Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire, Psychopharmacology, The Man on the Burning Tightrope, and covers album Songs We Should Have Written (1998’s The Ponzi Scheme remains a creature of the wild).

Within the breadth of the first Firewater album, Get Off the Cross…, you hear a hint of transition from the hard-edged attack of CSC to a warmer – though no less angry – sound heavily influenced by eastern and old European styles. Romani fiddles, klezmer, Russian folk, even shades of sea shanties and cabaret… all injected into groove-heavy, fiery rock, embroidered with Tod A’s life-worn and knowing vocals.

 

“Bourbon and Division” – Firewater

 

But even on albums where the folk styles of the larger world takes a backseat, like 2001’s Psychopharmacology, Tod A’s sustained fire keeps things compelling.

 

“Get Out of My Head” – Firewater

 

And the covers of Songs We Should Have Written read like a sinister and sexy lounge act for those about to make their best worst mistake.

 

“Is That All There Is?” – Firewater

 

So much time has passed since Firewater’s last album that you’d be forgiven for thinking Tod A had abandoned ship just as it had set off into international waters. Is that all there is? Oh, no. Take this break to familiarize yourself with Firewater’s story so far, then keep your eyes and ears ready, for this story is… to be continued.

 

Firewater @ Bloodshot Records

Firewater @ Facebook