Tall Firs formed in 1991.  The song ‘Us And Our Friends’ was written in 2001 and released on the first album in 2006. A video directed by Amy Jones was shot in 2007.  It is now ready for viewing.

In case you missed it, 1/2 of  the Tall Firs guitar and vocal squad has a new thing going this year, playing music with these two dudes Michael Rother (NEU!, Harmonia, solo) and Steve Shelley (Crucifucks, Sonic Youth, etc.) Everyone from Colin Newman (Wire) to Pat Kauffman the amp repair guy (Main Drag Music), to Aaron’s Mom is raving about it.

Benjamin Curtis (School of Seven Bells) will be joining the group and it shall now be known as ‘Hallogallo 2010: Michael Rother and Friends perform NEU! Music.’ Upcoming Shows:

August 4 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s (as Michael Rother and Freund)
August 6 Lincoln Center  NYC – FREE
August 8 Philadelphia, PA International House of Philadelphia

August 15 Hamburg, Germany Dockville Festival

September 4 Monticello, NY ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES
September 7 Columbus, OH Wexner Center for the Arts

September 17 Stavanger, Norway Numusic Festival

★ TALL FIRS (Saturday) This Brooklyn group plays jangly, electric folk music that nods to the dissonance of Sonic Youth (incidentally, the band is signed to Thurston Moore’s record label, Ecstatic Peace) and the dour playfulness of Pavement. The band’s sound is reminiscent of 1990s indie rock, sure, but it’s equally informed by the dim atmospherics of Nick Drake; despite a plethora of amplified instruments, Tall Firs feels like a folk outfit at heart. With ARMS, Dragon Turtle and We Are Country Mice. At 7:30 p.m., Glasslands Gallery, 289 Kent Avenue, at South First Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, glasslands.com; $8. (Petrusich)

Now we can stress out all night about people showing up at 7:30 when we don’t go on for another 4 1/2 hours. Every silver lining has a touch of gray, people.

All the other bands are nice boys with guitars too, so it’s not going to be one of those shows where somebody has contact mics on a cat and sheets of feedback are flying off the stage and Ryan and Aaron are transfixed and you and Dave don’t give a shit and you’re stuck in the back of the room and can’t even talk to your friends because the sheer volume is removing all the air from the room.  Not gonna be like that at all.  It’s gonna be really fun and your fingers are going to turn into bloody stumps from compulsively twitterfacing your acquaintances about what a lovely time you’re having.

WARNING!: we go on at midnight, that’s right.. midnight! This is no sweat for most of our fun crazed, sex obsessed, eternally youthful crew. However, we know there’s a few turncoats among us who wanna hang up there spurs and turn in early on a Saturday night. That’s right, on a Saturday night!! WTF!! Anyway, don’t worry about these folks. If a virtual orgy of laughing, drinking, looking good and feeling better is too much for their old bones, then they should stay home and the rest of us will just split their share of happiness.

Tall Firs 12:00 Midnite
ARMS ??:??
Dragon Turtle ??:??
We are Country Mice ??:??

doors 8:30pm
21+, $8

The Glasslands Gallery
289 Kent Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
[L] to Bedford, [J] to Marcy

Full Calendar: http://glasslands.blogspot.com/

-Antiquated Info Removed-

Dragon Turtle
us Tall Firs
and ARMS (offshoot of The Drums)

As Deerhoof rocked the Barby in Tel Aviv, their lesser-known compatriots Tall Firs brought Brooklyn to a Jerusalem alleyway on Tuesday evening as they played for a small crowd crammed into the Uganda’s sidecar gig venue.

The band, comprised of guitarists and vocalists Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan and drummer Ryan Sawyer, recently wrapped up a tour of the UK and Ireland. On Tuesday night the threesome seemed not to have recovered from the shock of landing in tiny, tumultuous Israel after performing in front of a massive sold-out crowd at ATP UK’s 10-year anniversary event.

I was lucky enough to behold ATP’s immaculate curatorship at this year’s Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, where their stage always featured the most innovative, radical acts, veterans and up ‘n’ coming bands alike. Tall Firs did not perform there, but they are no exception.

The band emerged five years ago, releasing two albums on Thurston Moore’s label, Ecstatic Peace.

The first of these, released eponymously in 2006, is a diverse creation, a kind of exploration. The track “The Woods” could almost be mistaken for something recorded, trance-like, in a countryside cabin. “Buddy/Baby,” on the other hand, is as urban as it gets: “Be my baby if you want to, be my buddy if you want to, make me a happy home or don’t,” sings Mies. Yet another track from the album is introduced during the show as “a love song about whiskey.”

Tall Firs borrow from genres as diverse as pop-punk, freak folk, noise rock and shoegaze to create a style all their own. Countered by the precise, steady beating of the drum, their interweaving guitars pull heartstrings: One sets the scene, somber and withdrawn, while the other meanders dreamily across the landscapes of America and the landmarks of musical history.

They have been compared to Sonic Youth, but, ultimately, their sound just barely recalls the rebellious, innovative oeuvre of their mentors.

It can instead be described as something singular, introverted, so fleeting that you very nearly begin to think the music you just witnessed was a beautiful, imaginary thing.

This is New York, not unlike Jerusalem: A sense of purpose lost among historic streets and sidewalks; the kind of cold that seeps into your bones; specks of warmth so small that you might miss them; evergreens like firs standing tall, observant, rising above the dirt and stone and soot.

This was one of the Firs’ longer shows – back home, they said, they play 40-minute gigs. Playing at Uganda, according to Mies, felt kind of like a spiritual experience. “Everyone was so quiet,” he said. Mesmerized, perhaps, or trying to understand.

They played two encores (“Our fifth encore in five years,” said Mies), one of them a chilling rendition of a song written by Mullan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

“This is a song about a peaceful solution to conflict,” Mullan said Mullan before the first chords sounded. The crowd laughed, right on cue.

Having worked near one of the city’s subway stations, Mullan was affected by the attacks, as were many New Yorkers at the time. Nevertheless, he said, he had hoped his country’s reaction would be peaceful.

Later he told me that he never thought he’d play that particular song in Jerusalem.

Politics aside, the band landed in Israel on Tuesday and spent a day adjusting and seeing the sights. “It’s been amazing,” Mies said, referring to both the Jerusalem crowd and the city itself. “We’ve been given an insider’s view on things.”

When I told him how extraordinary it was for a relatively unknown band from New York to play two gigs in Israel, he smiled and said, “That’s why we’re so glad to be here.”