3 keepers
keeper avg .214
Firehose is what happened when a big fan of the Minutemen (Ed Crawford), convinced George Hurley and Mike Watt (the band's two remaining members after D Boon's untimely death) to form a band with him. As I hadn't listened to those indie punk legends for a long time I needed a refresher. A few snippets of "Double Nickels on the Dime" later I confirmed that the Firehose version is mostly not too far afield, minus D Boon's bluesy leads. This definitely goes for "Hear Me", "From One Cums One","Anger","Soon",and Watt's goofy novelty "Me & You, Remembering," all busy and angular songs with frantic energy. I don't think the same could be said about the punchy album opener "Sometimes"****, which is carried by Crawford's catchy power-pop melodic riffing, as is the more up-tempo "Windmilling"****, like the greatest R.E.M. you've never heard. And the brightly energetic boogie-woogie "Honey, Please"***** should have been the biggest thing on radio if there were any justice. But speaking of the patron saints of Athens GA, "For the Singer of R.E.M." is such a dead-on impression it's a good thing they said it before everyone else could.
Some completely different things are the self-consciously jazzy "Backroads", the funky, rapped "Making the Freeway" (with a cool 4ths guitar riff), and the charming acoustic ballad "In Memory of Elizabeth Cotten", with gorgeous harmony vocals by folk/punk singer Phranc. The very minimalist "Operation Solitaire" and chaotic "From One Cums One" are on the album's artiest extreme - 90's math-rock/emo kids take note - but Firehose even makes gestures toward mainstream or hard rock in the main hook of "Anger" and the slashing chords of Pete Townshend in "Thunder Child" (as an indie-rock recording it tries to live up to its title but probably sounds amazing live). Another observation - though most of the writing is roughly split between Crawford and Watt, all the catchiest, most-accessible songs have some involvement from Crawford. Also, I haven't listened to Firehose's previous/first album "Ragin', Full On" (1986) but I'm sure it's similar.
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