fIREHOSE"lowFLOWs" The Columbia Anthology ('91-'93)
Columbia/Legacy Recordings [2012]
(2CD Set)
Fire Note Says: Re-visiting an important moment in time when we still called it college rock!
Album Review:
Minutemen Mike Watt and George Hurley recorded the fIREHOSE album, Ragin', Full On [1986] a year after the tragic death of their singer/guitarist and life-long friend, D. Boon, at the urging from Ohioan Ed Crawford (known as Ed fROMOHIO) to go on. The group recorded three albums for SST Records quickly and cheaply as a way of promoting their gigs - where they found that the indie punk community Watt and Hurley had been early members of had grown and were more than ready to welcome them back as friends and brothers.
As captured on the "lowFLOWs" anthology, fIREHOSE's music always wandered a bit, dividing its time with Minutemen-influenced jams, odd schizo rock/meandering ("Flyin' The Flannel"), occasional pop nugget like "Can't Believe" and then some pretty weird (but still cool) songs like "Losers, Boozer & Heroes".
But regardless of the twists and turns in their sound, they remained true to their friends and fans as three blue-collar rockers, carrying the punk rock torch and signaling ahead for things to come. Their live recordings (especially the EP Live Totem Pole included in this anthology, really show what they were made of, and include cover versions of friends songs, like Superchunk's "Slack Motherfucker" and the Butthole Surfer's "Revolution (Part 2)"Eventually fIREHOSE ran out of the steam that got them started in 1986 and disbanded. But the release of "lowFLOWs" means that almost 30 years later fIREHOSE will once again play for friends and fans and will likely find that their community has become even larger.
Key Tracks: "Down With The Bass", "O'er The Town Of Pedro", "Making The Freeway"
Bands With Similar Fire:
Minutemen
Meat Puppets
Superchunk
fIREHOSE Website
fIREHOSE Facebook
Columbia Records
Legacy Recordings
-Reviewd by Nick Kizirnis (www.nickykay.com)
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