The Firs

I’ve always had an appreciation for unknown (obscure) bands, especially when I know people in them.

When I went to college I deleted everyone on Facebook  from my former life (aka everyone I knew in high school), but for some reason I kept this one dude.  Maybe it was because he was super cute and I always had a crush on him.  Or maybe I knew one day he’d make it big in one of the bands he played in.  (Or maybe I still feel guilty for burning him with a cigarette — yes in my former life I was a smoker– even though he said he wasn’t mad about it.  A sign of a superior human.)

I’ve been following Rick Spataro’s musical endeavors for a while (Florist, Slender Shoulders), but his newest project The Firs put out an exceptionally fantastic first album.  And by “put out” I mean, posted on Bandcamp.  The album Smoke Thin is shoe-gazey, and slightly poppy on some tracks (” There is Nothing at All and Fear is Just Put to Waste”) with male Cat Power-esque vocals.  It’s almost like an underwater Indie dream.  The single (“or whatever that means,” says Rick) is a song called “A Fight” is a song about an internal struggle (“what can I say / I was in a fight inside”) that causes an external struggle with a special someone (“we are only talking because you know we’re both depressed”).  The entire album captures what I assume the post-collegiate sadness feels like.  It’s honest, raw and some of it’s kinda cute.  I highly recommend giving it a listen on a mellow night while drinking wine.

The FirsClick the cover art to listen to Smoke Thin on Bandcamp.

 

-Raina K. Puels ’16

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