Fireside “Beautiful Island, Ugly Natives” Hello Kids Startracks 1998

While making some adjustments to the ol’ year end list the other day I realized that I can’t remember the last time I was really into a non-metal band whose instrumentation consisted of a couple of guitars, bass, and drums. By “into” I mean a good three weeks of listening to nothing else, roles that bands like Jawbox, The Sea and Cake, Shudder to Think, XTC, and a handful of others have played at one point in time. Sweden’s Fireside were a curious fixation of mine back in the late ’90s, a quartet whose discography consists of exactly one outstanding full-length (1997’s Uomini d’Onore), a decent odds-and-ends comp (Hello Kids [1998]), and half a dozen slabs of derivative garbage that range from carbon-copy Quicksand imitations to third-rate power pop. Really, if you’re looking to pick something up from this identity-shifting group (as well you should, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about them here), just look for the date of release on the back; if it’s anywhere between ‘96 and ‘98, you’ll probably be fine. If it isn’t, well, save your receipt (2003’s rancid Get Shot).

Of course, you have to have an appreciation for raw, discordant rock with a heavy emphasis on bass/drum syncopation and combative guitars slashing through the mix (I refuse to use the word “angular,” but if I did, it would apply here). “Beautiful Island, Ugly Natives,” the first cut on Hello Kids, must have been an outtake from Uomini d’Onore, as I have no knowledge of it appearing on a label comp or 7″. It’s one of Fireside’s finest moments, opening with a spacious vibraphone and guitar duet before the beat drops in. Vocalist Kristofer Åström sleepily mutters various disconnected thoughts like, “Turn out the light, there’s an insect on my bedroom floor,” that border on textbook emo but are left-field enough to shed the image of a mascara-clad kid scribbling in the margins of his Creative Writing notebook. At 3:06 the band rips into a crashing mid-tempo coda with a noisy and staggering lead guitar, thick nebulous chords, and a buzzing monophonic synthesizer that connects everything together. It’s admittedly not the most original formula but the band refined it quite well, even if it was only for a few years before they grew bored with it and moved onto something else.

“Beautiful Island, Ugly Natives” – Fireside 5:07 (Hello Kids, Startracks 1998)