A-Sides with Jon Chattman: A Music Site Minus The PretensionInformal. Exclusive. Not the Same Broken Record.

Nov
26thWhere Blondfire Are

Richard Marx’s hit song “Hazard” was about a serial killer. Its music video, which I believed came in two parts (Google it), drove the lyrics home with a post-mullet Marx getting out of dodge in a small town. Why do I bring this up? First, someone has to. Second, because that song — like so many — focused on some depressing things and resonated with the masses. Let’s face it — for the most part, depressing songs or songs about dark subject matter are way easier to relate to sometimes. I’m not saying you’re a serial killer if you loved “Hazard,” but you get my point. Right? Break-up ballads kill it on the charts for this reason. People love to hear words that echo their own sentiments. Anyway, many times — and I say this contradicting my intro purposely (hey, I got to namedrop Richard Marx!) ra-ra songs come out and instead of coming off as pretentious and generic, motivate you to raise your game a bit. “Live it up…You’re growing up.” That’s a quote pulled from “Where the Kids Are,” an throw-caution-to-the-wind hit alt-song by Los Angeles-duo Blondfire. The band, which consists of siblings Bruce and Erica Driscoll (and in this post “touring brother” Steve Stout), recently signed with Warner Bros. Records, dropped an EP (“Kids” is on it), and will release their first full-length album as Blondfire by early 2013. Late last month, I interviewed Erica Driscoll and Stout at an H&M in Midtown Manhattan before a gig [...]