Tall Firs - So Messed Up

Tall Firs - Hairdo

ATP Recordings are delighted to announce that we have signed Tall Firs for their next record, ‘Out of It And In to It’ Out March 12th.

The record, their third album, sees the core duo of Aaron Mullan and Dave Mies return to their guitar duo origins, echoing the desolate spaces and warm places introduced on their debut 'Tall Firs', at the same time capturing a spirit of adventure and brutal honesty not seen by them to date.

To celebrate the first single, 'Crooked Smiles' which is about ATP, we are inviting fans who have footage from past ATP festivals, or who are coming in December to Nightmare Before Christmas, to submit video they have taken there, either raw or better still edited to parts of the song. We are looking for off-stage footage only - not in venues.

Aaron Mullen on 'Crooked Smiles'; "I've been to a lot of ATP's (20 +?) and one of my favorite things is watching people pile in on the first day. What's better than seeing smiling girls in their first-day-of-ATP outfits, laughing with their crew, literally staggering under the weight of the beer they intend to pound right fucking now? It's so optimistic I could lose my shit. And then later you see the same people 5 gigs and 1000 brews later staggering again, but now they're alone in the dark and rain, still smiling in the midnight shadow of the Butlin's tabernacle, searching for one more good time. Sorry, I'm a sap, but even the thought brings a tear to my eye."

To submit footage to the video project email atprecordings@atpfestival.com for more details.

Lyrics:

crooked smiles astride common-law brides
crates of lager under sunglassed eyes
with a casual flip, standing hands-on-hips
doubled down in laughter 'gainst a friendly
grip upon the brews unequaled
let's burn it down, come on people
let's turn this mother out
let's bring this ship about
big top tents imply a steeple
let's get high, let's get evil
let's blow it all tonight
crooked smiles alright
lone lurker arrives, with pinned-out eyes
she takes a spill, but dusts off fine
crooked smile again, in the wind and rain
she shuffles of, cat in the
brain upon the brews unequaled
let's burn it down, come on people
let's turn this mother out
let's bring this ship about
big top tents imply a steeple
let's get high, let's get evil
let's blow it all tonight
crooked smiles alright
grip upon the brews unequaled
let's burn it down, come on people
let's turn this mother out
let's bring this ship about
big top tents imply a steeple
let's get high, let's get evil
let's blow it all tonight
crooked smiles alright


Tall Firs - Crooked Smiles

Ghostlight Ensemble

Street Hassle

Panic Dreams

Winter Wind

Weeping Willow

Ms Thing

Johnny

Cling to You

Dirty Memories

Clown

Ghostlight

Tall Firs play ATP's I'll Be Your Mirror London this May 27 at Alexandra Palace. In the weeks leading up to the festival the band will be releasing free downloadable cover versions of tracks by other artists on the festival line-up.

This third track is a cover of A History Of Bad Men by Melvins feat guest cellist Heather McIntosh.

More info on the festival here: http://www.atpfestival.com/events/ibymlondon2012.php

Buy/Hear More Tall Firs

Tall Firs - A History Of Bad Men (Melvins cover)

Tall Firs and Scrawl play I'll Be Your Mirror in New York City this September 21st-23rd. Info/tickets: http://www.atpfestival.com/events/ibymusa2012.php

Tall Firs - Prize (Scrawl cover)

Tall Firs are currently on tour in the USA with Jeff Mangum. Full info at www.atpfestival.com/recordings/artist/tallfirs/view.php

Tall Firs - Tour Journal Part 1 - Who Farted

Tall Firs: 21 years of saditude; Third album 'Out Of It And Into It' forthcoming

Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan have been pals since junior high school. Starting in 1990, they literally taught each other how to play guitar, wood-shedding shoulder to shoulder. The first complete tune they could ever play start to finish was the Circle Jerks' 'Beat Me Senseless'; soon afterward they took on Mississippi... John Hurt's 'Payday'. Today they continue to refine a creole guitar language that is pretty much a two-man weave between those same disparate destinations.

After high school, the boys went in different directions for a while. Aaron was an early collaborator of freeform drum hero Chris Corsano; Dave fronted Baltimore band Blue Condors backed by Emo legends Colin Seven (Universal Order of Armeggedon) and Monica DiGialleonardo (Moss Icon). The 'Firs reconnected in NYC in late 2001, where they recorded their self-titled debut. Released on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace!; 'Tall Firs' was a country-smeared and stripped-down work of song writing and atmosphere that fit in somewhere between the grungy nineties and the dust bowl of the nineteen thirties. The album that followed, 'To Old To die Young' included the addition of Ryan Sawyer on the drum stool, and produced the decidedly more rock-o'-clock feel of a fully electric outfit.

In 2009 Tall Firs fell in love with another band and spent the year on a resulting collaboration called Glass Rock. The band then took most of 2010 off, while Aaron toured playing bass in Hallogallo with Michael Rother and Steve Shelley. They got back down to business in early 2011 to complete a new LP titled 'Out of It and Into it'

For 'Out of It and Into It' the fellas go back to their guitar duo origins. It's sort of like if country blues never detoured through Chicago on its way to Electric Avenue, or like two people playing Gamelan melodies on the same piano whilst narrating the end of the world in loose harmony. This one calls back to the desolate spaces and warm places introduced on their first disc, while capturing a spirit of adventure and brutal honesty not seen from these guys to date.

Over the past 10 years the Firs have shared stages with Thurston Moore, Silver Apples, Jeff Mangum, Shellac, Awesome Color, Emily Haines, Sonic Youth, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, Magic Markers, Kurt Vile, Celebration and a host of others.

A selection of press to impress:

"In gems like "The Breeze" and "The Woods," their duo vocals are moody, without squawking in that already dated freak-folk style; the guitars are occasionally colored by chimes, organ and brushed drums. "Go Whiskey" has the high, lonesome shiver of an old Townes Van Zandt record, except without any obvious country affectations. If your idea of staying warm on a winter night is a bottle of bourbon and a bleak memory, Tall Firs will make excellent company." Rolling Stone

"If Sonic Youth is the primordial, towering redwood forest of the indie noise-pop landscape, then underground NYC electric folk-duo the Tall Firs are the newly rising evergreens nestled at the foot of them." Harp

"[T]hese songs possess a sense of simmering tension, where lugubrious lyricism and instrumental drift do not detract from a poised delivery and a subtle but thoughtful use of contrasting shades. The acoustic-electric interplay suggests a kind of rootless, melodic modernity..." The Wire

"Tall Firs are brimming with an earnest beauty and win through, most notably on the sublime 'Go Whiskey' where the guitar sounds as though it was recorded in another, more stately century." Q

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