They say that Jonathan Fire*Eater's lack of success was due to their over-hyping from new label Dreamworks. Despite a track on the Dead Man On Campus soundtrack, it is quite hard to believe that today as the only people that remember them are hipsters aged 28-35. Not long after discovering the offshoot Walkmen and wanting roughly the same thing, only better, I discovered them and have never manged to succede in finding any material copies of their work.
I suppose the world would not yet ready for a quintet of good-looking, privileged, and very hip New Yorkers for another four years. Regardless, they were a remarkably talented band that really set the stage for what would be going on a few years later. After meeting at St. Alban's School in the D.C. area the members all dropped out of college and moved to New York to form this band. The group developed a unique sound with a vintage tone lead by Farfisa organ and a heavy beat that reflected a contemporary attitude and modern influences as well. They released two even rarer independent (I have not heard them) albums before being signed to Dreamworks. With Calvin Klein using them as models and opening for the likes of blur and Pulp the deal was remarkably generous worth over a million and including complete creative control and a dental plan. The complete creative control really paid off... for us, the listener.
Keeping with the title, opening track "When the Curtain Calls For You," sets the stage (pun) for the rest of the album balancing eerie tones with high energy vintage underground rock 'n' roll much like "These Little Monkeys" does. The band goes into full-on eerieness on the classic "A Night In The Nursery" and has given the theme song to ever subsequent summer in "Bipolar Summer." This album is a masteripiece that deserves a quality re-issue and surpasses everything the band would do without Stuart Lupton in the Walkmen.
Jonathan Fire*Eater - Wolf Songs For Lambs (1997)
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