Press
"Pairing quirky Talking Heads-like innovation with the lo-fi soul of Modest Mouse, Seattle three-piece Open Choir Fire has been awarded this week's CMJ Sonicbids Spotlight. Catch the trio on the road this summer as they support their self-released 2006 EP In Each Appropriate, Everlasting And Not with a 10-city tour of the West Coast, kicking off August 23 in Seattle, Washington."
--Taylor Mason - CMJ (August 2007)
First of all, as their Stranger Bands Page attests, a drunk guy once told them they "are all scientific and shit like the Sea and Cake, except not so pussy!" One point. Secondly, the first song they have posted, "Things You Have to Do," reminds me of a more post-rock Mclusky via D.C., and I really like Mclusky, and I really like post-rock from D.C. Two points. With the first song going over well, I listened to the next song, "Candle," and that boasts a little more of a Jawbox vibe, and I love Jawbox. Three points. While I do hear tinges of those bands in their sound, they're not rippin' anything off. In fact, the band claims to be inspired by a whole range of artists like the Pixies, Talking Heads, and Fugazi, and I can hear elements of all those artists in just the few songs they've got available, but they're all done with the band's own style. Four points. Finally, they're funny and they put up with my fangirl questions. Five points, FTW!
--"Band of the Week" Lineout Stranger Music Blog 8/15/07
Despite easy comparisons to early "alt" bands like the Pixies, this Seattle-based trio is, in reality, not so derivative. Though it all sounds a little familiar, what really emanates from Open Choir Fire's new EP is an instinct for eclectic textures and mood creation. For instance, "Oh Grace" begins like a lone prayer cradled in heavy guitar riffs, but when the backup vocals emerge in an angelic round-like style, it actually sounds like a choral piece. Even when singer/guitarist Amo DelBello breaks into the kind of gravelly growl you might hear from a death metal band, the lyrics stay graceful and the melody remains in an Elysian realm. "Candle" is a bit duskier, bound by a heavy bassline?something like "Sesame Street" gone ghost town. Almost every line of the song ends with DelBello asking, "How do you know?" sung in slithering minor key and punctuated by a disconcerting bark. These details are what distinguish Open Choir Fire from the mountain of self-serious indie rockers who think affected vocals and cryptic songwriting is the ultimate goal. It's a sample of solid craftsmanship, a preview of what they could do with a full-length venture. (Erika Fredrickson)
--Missoula Independent (11/15/07)
For those about to art rock your indie grungy emo folk, Bobble Tiki salutes you. Open Choir Fire! Seattle trio Open Choir Fire's mother tongue is alternative, but as the once-supple dialect of alternative has hardened over the years into a rigid paradigm, Open Choir Fire has smoothly eluded its grasp - by inventing a new language. Hell, Bobble Tiki doesn't know what to call it. Guitarist/vocalist Amo DelBello, drummer Terry Kyte, and bassist Brian Massey construct a brilliant, rockin', quirky and sweet sound in their new album, In Each Appropriate Everlasting and Not, often in the same song. It's Talking Heads inventive. It's Kings of Leon soulful. It's Pixies rockin'. It's Open Choir Fire.
--Weekly Volcano (Tacoma, Dec. 2006)
"Seattle's Open Choir Fire deal with contrasts on their new EP, "In Each Appropriate Everlasting and Not". Angular guitars and shout-sung vocals lean toward a spooky minor chord vibe, but always bring it back to more optomistic major chord resolutions. The effect is at once off-puttingly exciting and comfortingly familiar. Lead track "Things You Have to Do" is the band's best foot forward with strafing guitar attacks over repetitively bouncy bass and drums with anthemic vocals closing out the onslaught. The uptempo numbers tend to be stronger, but there's not a weak song here."
--Abe Beeson, KEXP 90.3 Seattle (June 2006)
"While Open Choir Fire leaves hints of the Pixies, Fugazi and Jawbox on the brain, their focal point is one of distilled inspiration without extraneous additives and preservatives, without imitation and derivative writing. With an ability to be simultaneously jerky and abrupt, screamy and excitable as well as helplessly pretty and effortlessly sweet, the broad palette they draw from spins quite an album of color and style from grunge to indie to emo and back, all the while pulling their listeners along like a fish hook through the navel. Yes, there is something raw and gutsy, brash and unapologetic driving these songs but in only five tracks, this group stirs up some serious fun."
--CD Baby
"Open Choir Fire's debut EP assembles a richly diverse collection of sounds and styles. By turns, it reverts to the screeching guitars and guttural screams of early Modest Mouse, Pixie-esque plodding progressions, and the fusion of syrupy pop rhythms and up-tempo beats. Amo DelBello's embittered vocals sound almost exactly like Aveo's William Wilson, so it's difficult to tell with which of these styles the band ultimately wants to identify. If Open Choir Fire simply subsists as an amorphous amalgamation of them all, the resulting dynamicism will undoubtedly win them fans."
--Katie Sauro, Seattle Sound Magazine (May/June 2006)
"Based on a five-song EP, OCF has the potential to be one of the more vigorous rock bands around Seattle...Open Choir Fire landed a top-notch producer - Johnny Sangster (Mudhoney, Murder City Devils), at Egg Studios - to track its new EP, "In Each Appropriate, Everlasting and Not." While the title leans towards pretentious, the album avoids the cute: Its five songs are forward moving, driving toward a goal, even if the goal is not always spelled out in black and white. The sound at various times faintly echoes early Modest Mouse, Juno's moody urgency, a few dashes of Queens of the Stone Age - singer Amo DelBello sounds a bit like QOTSA's Josh Homme."