Trees on Fire have been talking about Organica, the group’s follow-up to 2007’s The Green Room EP, since March 2008. When drummer Paul Rosner spoke with former C-VILLE music dude John Ruscher, he mentioned that the group hoped to release the album in July or August of last year, and to shop around a track called "Birds and the Bees" for radio play.
It’s a few months past deadline, but the Trees are finally ready to rustle a few leaves: Organica: Volume One will be released on January 24 during a gig at Gravity Lounge. Rather than release a full album immediately, the band’s manager, Sean Haggerty, says the band plans to release a series of EPs through the course of 2009, then compile them for a future full-length release.
A quick review after the photo.
Trees on Fire: Getting plenty of water, sunlight and hard rock on Organica.
"Into the Fire": Scratchy atmospherics give way to disco-punk cymbals, vocal mushroom clouds and Coldplay guitar riffs. (The Coldplay comparison is neither praise nor condemnation; not to get all Zen, but it simply is.) A bit like Crazy Horse opening "Like a Hurricane," then galloping off with the Mars Volta, or Space Invaders meeting Rock Band. A surefire opener for live sets. Lyrics are negligible, but vocals are spot on.
"Take a Seat": All of the fellows in Trees are talented enough to pull wild musical tricks in anti-gravity, but I’m a sucker for a grounded melody. Here, the Trees plant themselves in a simple song and find interesting ways to grow themselves out. Instead of overeager lyrics and premature guitar fireworks, the band takes modest lines like "Take a seat, we take a seat in our cars./ We drive around, making everything ours" and elevates ’em with sheets of hooks.
"Birds and the Bees": A song that opens like a manic cousin to Seals and Croft’s "Summer Breeze," then gets all ’90s funk-rock on your ass: distorted vocals burrowing into your headphones, thudding fuzz bass. The first half of the tune is radio-ready;the second half is a dare, and a nice way to end the first volume of new tunes. (Song courtesy of Trees on Fire—Thank you!)
Trees on Fire release Organica, Volume 1 on Saturday, January 24, at 8pm. Tickets are $10, and comes with a copy of the band’s new EP. The Downbeat Project opens.
