Firebug, End of the World

You know, if Firebug had spent less time on fancy packaging and boastful self-reviews, they might have actually found the time to write the amazing songs they claim to. The reality is that they came out with half-assed, clichéd pseudo-rock and roll. In their defense, the material is really not all that bad, but with the way they hype themselves up, I got kind of offended at such a big letdown. Their PR guy included a little snippet in the press packet asking me to “try to imagine Erykah Badu fronting a delta blues guitar driven rock group.” I’m going to let you know right now that I tried very, very hard to find evidence of any of those descriptions in the songs.

My first point is that the white girl with pigtails and an expensive guitar has nothing in common with Erykah Badu. Beyond the image issue, there is not a drop of soul in Juliette Tworsey’s voice. She fits more into the Sheryl Crow pseudo-angsty-singer-songwriter rock vein. “Sittin’ there / Sippin’ your whiskey / So bitter”? I was half-expecting some reworded stab at that being the first and deepest cut that the unnamed, male offender perpetrated.

Okay, we’ve dealt with the Erykah Badu disaster; moving on. Um, Delta blues? Has Mr. Curt (he provided no last name; figures) ever seen the Delta? Or at least heard anything that’s come out of there? The Mississippi Delta does not typically describe polished radio-rock anthems. A really grungy guitar solo usually comes out at one point or another in the Delta, but not so with Ms. Tworsey and company. Not to say that there’s no guitar featured. Oh, no; there’s guitar, but it’s usually somewhere between Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s melodramatic melodies and Alanis Morrisette. I can’t say Robert Johnson would be singing their praises. On the third track, lead guitarist Jules Shapiro tries out his slide chops, but even then it keeps that singer-songwriter, soft rock feel. The song is actually pretty solid — solo guitar and vocals intro, full band kicks in, and the rest of the song is a crescendo. It could be a top forty hit. Almost. But still, it has nothing to do with the damn Delta.

And the final claim: “guitar driven rock group.” Is there a more subjective description? Guitar-driven? Does that just mean if they have a guitarist and he plays for the whole song, they are guitar-driven? Does he have to be soloing all the time? Does he have to be the frontman? And “rock group”? The term “rock” has become so subjective, misinterpreted, and generalized that it has lost nearly all of its definition and credibility.

I may be coming off as unnecessarily harsh, and that’s only half true. I don’t mean to sound like a complete purist asshole. But come on — super fancy packaging on the disc, their PR guy writes up some shlock on their remarkable originality and greatness, and the band bio is an overdone piece on how many radio stations and famous people they’ve played with. Then you take a listen to the music and realize that hundreds of other radio rockers have written the same tunes hundreds of times before. There’s nothing wrong with doing radio rock if that’s what you’re into, but don’t claim to be something exciting and innovative that I’ve never heard before.