ABOUT FLASHBULB FIRES:

Known for their distinctive brand of indie-pop, Flashbulb Fires has a genuine conviction to push the boundaries of popular music. The Denver trio's knack for combining dynamic song structures with swirling, kaleidoscopic arrangements is instantly recognizable, while their live show is captivating, blending polished artistry and raw electricity. This, along with relentless touring, has established the band as one of the nation's most promising new acts.

Their debut album, Glory, was released in December 2009 to much critical acclaim. After spending the better part of 2010 on the road, Flashbulb Fires returned home to work on a follow up. The result, Gasconader, due out in the spring of 2012, is a vivid, glowing statement. Recorded in a modest house-turned-studio in the Colorado mountains, the album stands out as a unique effort from an enigmatic group.

A closer look at 'Glory' (2009):

In the age of the thin and disjointed digital single, Flashbulb Fires’ debut LP, Glory, is a cohesive artistic statement and an undeniable return to the album as an art form. In the winter of 2008, Flashbulb Fires took up residence in a small house-turned-studio and began feverishly writing material, recording, and scoring parts for the album’s bold instrumentation. Interrupted only by a national tour, the enigmatic band emerged a year later with a record that was, without a doubt, a complete album in every sense of the word.

Unquestionably stirring and impassioned, Glory abounds with lush orchestrations and powerful performances. From breathtaking horn arrangements to intimate acoustic guitars and inspired vocal harmonies, the album inhabits a deliberately divided and overwrought mood from start to finish. The brooding lyrical narratives, facilitated in large part by singer Patrick McGuire’s conflicted religious past and suburban-American upbringing, only further the album’s overall mood. After a childhood spent navigating through an unfulfilling revolving door of religions, McGuire eventually broke from his splintered youth and began to examine his spiritual struggle and suburban fatigue. Using images wrested from the sentiments of a bleeding generation, Glory relentlessly aches and trembles but is ultimately rooted in hope. It is in this hope that the album’s narrators are redeemed, at once detached and triumphant, while observing a society coated by a gauzy ignorance.

Glory stands as a modern American album from a modern American band – complex and self-assured. Its haunting themes and dramatic sonic framework strike a compelling balance between the immediately accessible and the subtly profound.