Fireworks Band • Page 9

It seems like it was majority Chris. I also think Dave contributed songwriting more than most singers. Seeing him play songs acoustically by himself doesn't look like a lead singer who learned to play the chords real quick.

 

Yeah, Dave's guitar skills are phenomenal. I'm sure he's contributed plenty. Ian Cohen's review of Oh, Common Life has always been a big source of confusion because it refers to Dave as the primary lyricist. Up till that point I also thought it was primarily Chris. However, I've seen Ian Cohen make errors in the past. (One of them was not given Oh, Common Life an 8)

 

an unbiased 8 is pretty good. Dave definitely wrote lyrics for Run Brother Run, and possibly Hotbed of Life, but outside of that I'm pretty sure it's mainly Chris with input from Dave.

 

Yeah people love Detroit, and to a lesser degree When We Stand On Each Other, but outside of a few tracks the interest is just not there. I mean I love Fireworks to death but if they ever have a renaissance it's going to be from Gospel and Oh Common Life, not their fairly standard pop punk debut.

 

I think this just means that those two need to collaborate more:

I Could Be The One 4 U, by The Wild Birds Of Heaven

(Though I'm sure at this point working together is as natural as them working alone hahaha)

 

Haven't listened to the album in awhile, but I know there's at least one song about Dave's dad dying. So I assume he at least wrote lyrics for that.

 

He definitely wrote Run Brother Run and The Hotbed of Life. I kind of just assumed he wrote Flies on Tape because that's a line in Run Brother Run.

 

Agreed.

I revisited AIHTOIMOC last week, and I can say some of it felt aged, but songs like Geography, 2923 Monroe St., Again and Again, Detroit, and When We Stand on Each Other could still fit seamlessly into a Fireworks set/playlist of Gospel and OCL songs.

We Are Everywhere feels dated sans Mountain Movers and Chicago is Cliche.

 

I forgot about this, its not too bad.

 

Still so bummed this didn't happen.

 

The songs in OCL really hold weight, but it's always a brief cutting sadness. Each heavy moment seems to have that counterweight metaphor which is clever and light-hearted. It seems as though they've unintentionally created a point in each song that is "that day's low point". It makes the album title ever more accurate.

 

I know they did it as a joke, but a tenor saxophone would have been a supreme replacement for those power guitar solo parts of The Only Thing That Haunts This House Is Me.

 

A couple days late, but here's that track by track that's at the bottom right of the AIHTOIMOC vinyl spread:

The influence of youth is palpable. hahaha

 

awesome

 

Decided to buy the wolf mask today. No real reason. I guess I just wanted it?

 

gospel repress on the TC site

 

Rediscovered this band tonight

kind of astounded by how good gospel is, and how self-affirming & honest the lyrics are

 

I don't understand how this band didn't get massive

 

I get that this is a six month old post but

You should check out Broadway Calls' self titled

 

Cause pop punk kids are terrible.

 

If pop punk kids weren't terrible Fireworks and The Swellers would have been just as succesful as TWY was in their peak

 

I still really want those Oh Common Life Sessions on a 7”.

 

Leaving Oh Common Life off the album is still such a baffling move, one of their best songs

 

Gospel still makes me feel things all these years later

 

OCL is a masterpiece, but if the title track was on it, it would be a double masterpiece