Category: Jonathan Fire*Eater

It was away back in October 2013 that I tried to get folk interested in Jonathan Fire*Eater with the posting of three tracks from Tremble Under Boomlights, the one CD of theirs that I had at the time.  The effort attracted one comment….thanks Charity Chic….and it was to say that he had enjoyed one of the songs, which funnily enough just happens to be the subject of today’s posting.

Jonathan Fire*Eater was a New York City-based indie rock band originally from Washington DC. The line-up was Stewart Lupton (vocals), Tom Frank (bass), Paul Maroon (guitar and pedal steel), Matt Barrick (drums), and Walter Martin (keyboards).

In 1995, they released their eponymous debut on Third World Underground Records, an indie label based in Arizona, and later in the year there was a three-track EP on PCP Records, which is described as an experimental/noise-rock label from NYC.

The following year, they began to get a bit of attention in the UK, thanks to them signing for Deceptive Records which had been founded by BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq, a man who many felt was a worthy 90s successor to John Peel, as well as touring as the support acts for both Blur and Pulp.

Before too long, they were snared by Dreamworks, the major sort of masquerading as an indie label newly established by David Geffen. The album Wolf Song For Lambs appeared in 1997, but the big money move was a disaster in terms of the creative edges being smoothed off and the band members falling out constantly over things.

The inevitable split came in 1998 with Paul Maroon, Matt Barrick and Walter Martin becoming three-fifths of The Walkmen while Stuart Lupton pursued his own path with The Childballads and later The Beatin’s. Bassist Tom Frank left music and has established himself as a reasonably successful journalist, writing under the name T.A. Frank, primarily for Vanity Fair and the Washington Monthly.

There were occasional murmurings of Jonathan Fire*Eater re-forming to play gigs, but they always turned out to be unfounded rumours. It’s a moot point nowadays as Stewart Lupton died on May 27, 2018 at the age of 43. No cause was given, but his family did say it stemmed from a “desperate attempt to escape the voices that so tormented him.”

I recently picked up the band’s first 45 for Deceptive, a double-A effort, both sides of which can be found on the CD mentioned earlier. It’s a bit crackly and hissy which would indicate that the previous owner really liked it and played it a fair bit. I also think the lyric for what I think is the main track makes for a great short story, of the horror variety or perhaps and episode of the X-Files which was so popular at the time:-

In every car that passes me on the street
I search for the particular face
The lipstick trembles under boomlights
The lipstick my only brothers only trace

Was the birthday birthday ashtray
Carried all along this way now
It was a gift from my little sister
On the very same day they took her away

And it’s painted cherry red, cherry red now
All your dreams are cherry red inside of your head
And it’s painted cherry red, cherry red now
All your dreams are cherry red inside

In Hollywood I got the phone call
That made my heart and my limousine stall
Falling down in the hotel hall again
Little drunk from the Warners’ Christmas ball

Cut by love and cut by switchblade
He’s been gone nearly half a decade
Cut by love then carved by switchblade
He’s been gone nearly half a decade

I still remember my brother
I see his face on the billboards
And the Polaroids that
Stayed on my pillow ’til they faded

So, lock yourself in your hotel room
I’ll take the next flight and be there by noon
Lock yourself in your hotel room

Now picture him now, sittin’ by the pool
Wearin’ a pink rubber swimming cap
Eating ice cream with the girl
With the silver curls
Sittin’ in his lap

I can still still remember my brother
I see his face on the billboards and the
Polaroids that stayed on my pillow
‘Til they faded some sad grey grey day

Yes, you are still my brother
Even when you change over so
Lock yourself in your hotel room
I’ll take the next flight and be there by noon

I pictured it all, the fangs and claws
Coarse short hair right then and there
I pictured it all now
Hey!
The fangs
The fangs and the claws now

So, lock yourself in your hotel room
I’ll take the next flight and be there by noon
Lock yourself in your hotel room

And so all things will secretly begin
To live underground after the death of a friend
Ohohhhhhh
Oh oh oh
Oh oh ohohhhh

mp3: Jonathan Fire*Eater – The Search For Cherry Red

The other side of the 45 is also worth a listen:-

mp3: Jonathan Fire*Eater – Give Me Daughters

I’m not sure what the Blur and Pulp crowds would have made of things, but they sound as if they would have gone down a storm with a Bad Seeds audience.

JC

PS : Links now sorted.  Apologies for earlier mix-up.

Lazy post today.  Words straight from wiki:-

Jonathan Fire*Eater was a New York City-based indie rock band originally from Washington DC. The line-up was Stewart Lupton (vocals), Tom Frank (bass), Paul Maroon (guitar and pedal steel), Matt Barrick (drums), and Walter Martin (organs, keyboards). 

Jonathan Fire*Eater was formed from a childhood band called The Ignobles. All the members of Jonathan Fire*Eater attended high school at the D.C. private school St. Albans School. Lupton, Martin, and Barrick formed the Ignobles in junior high school. Maroon joined as the guitarist and Ryan Cheney signed on as the vocalist. Lupton played bass. In 1993, the members went to college, mostly in New York City, and Jonathan Fire*Eater was formed with Cheney departing and later joining The Ruby Dare and Lupton taking over vocal duties. St. Albans alum Tom Frank joined as a new bassist.

In 1995, they released their eponymous debut on Tucson, Arizona’s Third World Underground Records, which featured “The Silver Surfer”, “Romans & Barbarians”, “Christmas Time, Halloween”, and other tracks. Later that year, a self-titled EP on PCP established their reputation with the frenetic tracks “The Public Hanging of a Movie Star” and “When Prince Was a Kid”.

In 1996, the five-song mini-album Tremble Under Boom Lights was released by the Medicine label, featuring well-produced offers like “The Search for Cherry Red” and “Give Me Daughters”. Reviews were positive, with Allmusic.com describing Tremble as “a ferocious record” despite its “minor flaws.” By this time, the band was receiving considerable media and industry attention. They were courted by Calvin Klein to model and opened for Brit Pop stars Pulp and Blur. As Lupton said in a 1996 New York Times Magazine profile, “Right now the record companies are sort of circling like vultures.”

In early 1997, Jonathan Fire*Eater signed with David Geffen’s nascent DreamWorks music label. Their major label debut, Wolf Songs for Lambs, was released by DreamWorks in 1997 to tepid critical response. Not long after the album’s release, tensions between Lupton and the other members and a general wariness of mainstream success led to the band’s breakup. They played their last show at the Central Park bandshell on July 28, 1998.

Jonathan Fire*Eater was called “most hyped young group that nobody has ever heard of,”

Maroon, Barrick, and Martin later went on to form The Walkmen and Lupton has pursued his music career through his band The Childballads, who put out their debut album in January 2007. The latter has toured with Cat Power and the Kills. In 2009 he released an EP in a new band, The Beatin’s, which he formed with Carole Wagner Greenwood. Entitled “A Little Give And Take,” the limited edition vinyl included Lupton’s poetry and the duo’s art and writing. Tom Frank pursued a career in journalism as T.A. Frank.

Me ?  Well I’ve got a copy of Tremble Under Boom Lights and then a later single entitled When The Curtain Calls For You. There’s some half-decent tunes to be found.  I’m fond of these in particular:-

mp3 : Jonathan Fire*Eater – The Search For Cherry Red

mp3 : Jonathan Fire*Eater – Give Me Daughters

mp3 : Jonathan Fire*Eater – When Prince Was A Kid

Enjoy