Long before the The Strokes, TV on the Radio, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs & The Rapture there was Jonathan Fire* Eater. The band that were the darlings of a then burgeoning NYC music scene. They were the band supposed to make it big and of course all they did was fall flat on their faces. After one album and 2 EPs Jonathan Fire* Eater were one of the first bands signed to Dreamworks and their album was supposed to be HUGE! It wasn’t. While Wolf Songs for Lambs (their Dreamworks debut) was a great album it got pretty bland reviews and was the kind of album that needed a few listens to really sink in. Plus singer Stuart Lupton’s major heroin problem eventually led the band to collapse and just call it quits before the millenium and before they could ever live up to their potential. After breaking up half theband went to form the pretty bland yet critical darling The Walkman, while Stuart Lupton got clean and just released an album with his own band The Childballads.

Influenced by the Velvet Underground, The Stones, Gallon Drunk & The Birthday Party, Jonatahn Fire* Eater still to this day sound like no one else. Unlike most bands, Walter Martin’s Organ were what really drove the sound creating slick grooves that never grew annoying like the way 4 minutes of Ray Manzarek can get. Mixed with Lupton’s drugged out of his mind singing that could at times put Ian Svenonius to shame created this tense energy that always teetered on exploding out of control before reeling itself back in. It was truly magical and a shame that the band could never live up to it’s own hype.

Their self-titled debut album and subsequent EPs all came out on pretty small labels and have since gone out of print. Their First-album is actually pretty hard to track down while the other 2 EPs pop up somewhat frequently. Wolf Songs for Lambs sadly became a used CD bin staple for quite a while and is fairly easy to get a hold of. And while I really liked Wolf Songs for Lambs, it was their earlier stuff that was just amazing… especially live and really deserves a wider audience and more recognition.

Jonathan Fire* Eater – Jonathan Fire* Eater, Jonathan Fire* Eater EP & Tremble Under Boom Lights EP.