I’ll be honest. I was never into Jawbreaker, Superchunk or Weezer so when promos come across my desk with new bands compared to that trio of outfits then I inadvertently roll my eyes. My alt ’90’s were made up of grunge, discovering industrial metal and thrash so not having a basis for those comparisons must be a blessing, right?
But I digress.
Fire in the Radio is different. If I was to compare them to anyone, I’d probably put them next to Turnover as a contemporary artist or maybe Sugar (Bob Mould! Now we’re talking!) or Social Distortion even as vocalist Richard Carbone channels the gruffness of Mike Ness, the uncanny pipes of Bob Mould, and those anthemic choruses of Austin Getz. All within opener “New Air”, I might add.
“New Emo”? “Nemo”? Is that a thing? If there was a genre fitting for Fire in the Radio, it’d be one of those and “I don’t know, I remember” would be the main anthem. Elsewhere within New Air, “Adeline” careens while gently caressing your musical sensibilities with Carbone’s seductive delivery hitting all the right nostalgia points while “Lionel Hampton Was Right” is almost like a modern Husker Du track if they kept making music beyond the ’80’s propelled by Ed Olsen’s bass and Jonathan Miller and Carbone’s screaming guitars tones.
“Drug Life” is driven by Adam Caldwell’s epic drum performance and later still, there’s no more fitting a title than “Holy Shit” as that’s the exclamation music lovers will be using after hearing the track. But throughout New Air, Fire in the Radio do the impossible in today’s single buying/streaming only society: offer fans a collection of songs that each stay in your head while successfully crossing genres until the very end.
New Air is out through Wednesday Records on May 5th. We highly recommend you check it out by clicking the pre-order link here. For more on Fire in the Radio, including where you can see them live, head on over here.