Americaning

In a music world full of similarity, Fire Mountain brings some much needed change

By Greg R. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Music reviews always seem a little contrite and conceded. Every one person has a different taste in music, which means each one of those said people believes that their musical taste is better than other said people. When one person says to another, “you should listen to this band because they are good”…what they are really saying is “here, let me help make your life better because of my taste in music.” Sure, while that may not be the case in some scenarios, it’s true for most (See Pitchfork reviews). So, before we go on, let me start off by saying the following is not so much a “review” but more of a suggestion of a new band who released a new EP that may tickle some people’s fancies.

In an indie-rock world full of a who’s who list of artists, it’s hard to really separate the real bands from the one’s that sound like the real bands.

This challenge occurs all the time.

Take for instance when Vampire Weekend or Spoon both blew up. All of a sudden, there were 10 to 20 bands in the music scene that sounded eerily similar.

This is not Vampire Weekend or Spoon’s fault…this is not even the other “similar” band’s fault.

It was a style of music that, for whatever reasons, caught on like wild fire in not just the indie-world, but pop-culture itself.

Everyone loved the sound and in a chain reaction type event, everyone wanted to sound like it.

Aiding to the influx in this particular sound was the location they were created in.

Many of those “similar” bands hailed from the areas in Northeast or the West Coast (which leads to the wonderful equation that no one wants to acknowledge exists: Similar scenery + similar ideas = similar sounds.)

Very (VERY) rarely does a band with indie-rock roots call the South home.

Again, like anything there are the exceptions…which brings us to the main topic of this particular article.

The Americana band, Fire Mountain, was created not in any thriving metropolis where superficial and fabricated ideas and thoughts are created on a daily basis. The band was not influenced by streams of traffic, towering skyscrapers or millions of people in every direction.

No, Fire Mountain was born in the heart of the South – to be more accurate, Troy, Ala.

To really understand the band, one must understand its surroundings.

Troy is located about 40 minutes south of Montgomery.

(Reasons why people may have heard of Troy before: 1. Anyone that has driven to Destin or Panama City Fla., has passed Troy. 2. Troy University. 3. It’s the other Troy when people are referring to Troy, New York).

Life in Troy is simple. The city is dry. There is hardly any traffic (even on game days), there is a Wal-Mart (center of the city’s universe) and two Waffle Houses (just when you thought one wasn’t enough).

In a country full of distractions, this band has quietly built a repertoire of songs that people from all walks of life can enjoy simply because they live in a city full of no distractions.

This is one of the primary reasons why one could make a case for Fire Mountain as a real band.

Their songs are filled with hope, despair, risk and rewards – or as the band describes on their website a “universal message”.

Which brings us to Fire Mountain’s newest release, an EP entitled Of the Dust.

It is a collection of songs, that at times, are not the happiest.

And while issues like these have been addressed by 1,000 different bands 1,000 different ways, this time, the messages really do hit closer to home.

The listener can relate to what is being sung because of the music that accompanies each lyric.

There are no screeching electric guitars or echoing synthesizers to cloud what is truly important – the themes.

What the listener gets is a combination of acoustic guitar, a percussion kit, a piano and bass to create a homey feel. From there, lead singer Perry Brown delivers each verse with a delicate urgency that paints out a story filled with doubt, rejection, betrayal and loneliness.

While Fire Mountain tries its best to distance itself (and its sound) from other bands, listeners will undoubtedly make comparisons to the likes of many of the top indie-folk-americana band on the scene today.

Which of course, is justified, as Fire Mountain has cited Fleet Foxes and Ray Lamontagne as two of it’s major influences. But where most bands would take the formula created by the successful and try to duplicate it, Fire Mountain has taken the formula and altered it just enough for its liking.

The EP’s second track “Fade” is a keen example, as is the following track “No One’s Help.”

Both are songs that will sound and feel familiar at the beginning, however, by the end that familiarity leads down a different path and ultimately, a satisfying one.

In the end, that is exactly what Fire Mountain is – a band personifying that “real” band mentality, using a formula that delivers a familiar sound in a unique way, with satisfying results.

“Off the Dust” is the best example to date of how successful this formula can be and how masterfully a band from a little town in Alabama can use it to it’s advantage.

While it may be hard to separate the good from the bad or the the bland from the unoriginal in a music world full of a who’s who list of artists, Of the Dust is a good indicator that duplication is not always the best method when creating music.

Sometimes, the best method is when a band goes their own way.  

Here is a link to the band’s video for the first song off the EP, “Black Heart”