The Fire Tapes are a Charlottesville indie-rock band that's been getting a bit of attention lately through high-profile gigs like Charlottesville's Tom Tom Founders Festival, as well as opening for Dirty Ghosts when they played DC's Black Cat. Their debut album, Dream Travel, was released last fall, and they've just released a video for "Attack Of The Clones," a track from that album. The song itself is an uptempo indie-rock tune driven by jangly guitars. It fits in well with the recent revival in the local indie scene of more 90s-identified sounds--which, to my mind, is always an improvement over the recent mellow pop/electronica direction that a lot of indie rock has taken. The music The Fire Tapes are making would be a surefire hit for fans of local bands like The Diamond Center, Heavy Midgets, and Young Adult Fiction, and should connect with anyone who enjoys bands like Yo La Tengo, Television, and The Dream Syndicate. The video for "Attack Of The Clones" is pretty interesting in its own right. In keeping with the song's title, the video appears to document an intrusion into singer/guitarist Betsy Wright's life of a clone with disruptive intentions. The use of a body double is pretty obvious at certain points, but it's still an entertaining visual fable, especially at the end of the video, when Wright and her "clone" face off in a duel with pistols. Check it out.
The Fire Tapes will be performing in Richmond next week, on Thursday May 24 at The Republic (2053 W. Broad St.), along with Wild Moccasins, from Austin, TX. The show is presented by Ontology Promotions, and it is FREE! For more info, click HERE.