All it takes is one quick listen to Tall Firs’ Too Old to Die Young, their second release for Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace, to hear how this Brooklyn electronic folk band have found the perfect home on the Sonic Youth guitarist’s record label. The dueling guitars of Dave Miles and Aaron Mullan recall the quieter moments of Sonic Youth, or like-minded Nineties bands like Eric’s Trip or Sebadoh, while their vocals share Moore’s laid back, everyman style of delivery. These references are most evident on numbers like the lead track, “So Messed Up,” where a delicately reserved intro of interwoven guitar lines and rolling drums, gradually gives way to lines such as “We were acid crazed, teenage tweak-outs/Those booze filled days of pills and freak-outs/Tonight we’ll be all right/We’ll make it through tonight.” They’re not celebrating the wild days gone by as much as they’re plainly admitting their existence. When they repeat, “Tonight we’re so messed up/We’re so messed up” there’s no exclamation point, and there are no high fives. They didn’t just score a six pack of cheap beer from their older brother. No, they’re older now, and those reckless nights now come with consequences, “We’re not too old to get drunk/But we’re too old now to die young/We’re so messed up.”
MP3: Tall Firs – So Messed Up
