Tall Firs: Too Old to Die Young

This was the second record with Dave Mies and me as the dual singer/songwriters, adding Ryan Sawyer on drums. It's probably easiest to listen to on Spotify, but feel free to hit me up for an LP. Here's a press release from the time:

Tall Firs Continue Partying; Tens Illegally Download The Critically-Acclaimed Too Old to Die Young

’Too Old’ offers tracks like the adamant lead-single "So Messed Up", and…the energy is far from unbecoming, bringing [Tall Firs] out of a self-imposed coma… the Firs get downright skin-crazed and wild. Toms patter and cymbals rattle while the guitars… stir themselves into a mini-furor. -Pitchfork

Tall Firs have shredded Arthurfest in 2006, All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2007, and the McCarren Park Pool Parties in 2008. They are back in the USSA after a gallop through the United Kingdom supporting their most recent full-length Too Old to Die Young. The Wire reports TOTDY "shifts gear with an easy grace from intertwining guitar drifts to more gnarled, backwoods riffage that nods to Crazy Horse and CCR." Uncut lauds this guitar "rumble and flicker’ atop the ‘Keith Moon-style perpetual drum solo."

Live shows have consistently won accolades as well: David Fricke described one Tall Firs set in his Fricke’s Picks column in Rolling Stone: “A gently uplifting highlight of my…weekend…a psychedelic-folk tangle of spider-leg-guitar arpeggios and hazy, bong-room singalong harmonies." The Guardian (UK) describes a recent live show as possessing "a muscularity that recalls Neil Young in one of his more ornery moods, or a beefed-up Galaxie 500."

Tall Firs have pioneered ‘car service rock’ and it is amazing to see a whole band and gear emerge from a Lincoln Town Car. It’s an apt analogy for the Tall Firs live experience: Three fellas up there with miniature amplifiers and a distinctive lack of guitar pedals, playing your mom’s kit if it’s already onstage and no hassle. Yet the Firs rule a living room or a 2000 seat theatre, college-campus shed or dive bar. Tall Firs are the canned expanding foam of rock bands: Once you pop that bitch open, they precisely fill any given space with a lather of creamy dual savant guitar and lead drumming, plus the trademark world-weary vocal stylings and wiseacre goofing. You are invited aboard.

Further praise for Too Old to Die Young:

“[E]lements of ‘Too Old to Die Young’…have…been used before by…New York bands from Patti Smith to Television to Talking Heads, but the way Tall Firs blend them results in something lusher than any of the others could muster” - NME

"[R]eally calming vibes but also a low-level heaviness sort of thing going on… if you like feeling good and warm, you should get it." – Vice

"[T]he trio fashion [a] legitimate anthem in "So Messed Up," a thorny example of the outfit showing off its considerable strengths—Mies and Mullan using each caterwauling riff and bony guitarpeggio as a telephone to their twenties." – Village Voice

"[S]un blessed beauty…The Firs have cut out the fuzz and moved into a twinkling star light territory of guitars and stuttering drums. Pop in the sweetest of traditions, these songs amble along, weaving organically and ending inconclusively. Thank god." - AU

"It really is lazy to say they sound like Sonic Youth because they really don’t, they have that feel though, that attitude, the phrasing – scrap that, they sound absolutely nothing like Sonic Youth or Pavement or Shellac or Neil Young. Brooklyn’s Tall Firs are a classic American alternative band. They’re mellow, refined, clever, warm, intelligent, rewarding. A fine album, a feel good glow, a mellow beauty, a heartily recommended release. - Organ