by Cosmo Lee

Bless the good folk at Fat Wreck Chords. Not only did they set up punkvoter.com to educate kids about voting (to the tune of 500,000 users a month), they also took their message on the road with the “Rock Against Bush” tour. But November ’04 came and went, and the President stayed in office. Resignation replaced hope as most of us licked our wounds and returned to the daily grind.

But Fat Wreck hasn’t given up. They’ve released Smoke or Fire’s “Above the City,” 24 minutes of no-frills, how-it-should-be-done punk rock. The album is a mix of Hot Water Music’s passion with J Church’s scrappiness. In many places, the lyrics approach the mighty Fugazi in punch and beauty. With most songs around two minutes long, one can read the lyrics practically in real time along with the music.

“Filter,” the highlight of the album, perhaps sums up Smoke or Fire best. The first half of the song is a rant against consumerism; the second half is a prescription for fighting it:

We’ll smoke this city to the filter
We’ll empty every bottle, you’ll see us by the river
We’ll bring back those things you can’t remember
Like smiling in the winter
You’re smiling while they burn your lives

In other words, the fight isn’t in mass demonstrations and email petitions; it’s in the little details of our lives, and the way through is “we.”
Smoke or Fire themselves exemplify this union of personal and political. Finding their native Boston overpriced and inhospitable to the band’s progress, they moved to Richmond, VA, where they found community with bands like Avail and Strike Anywhere. Along the way, they underwent a name change; their original name, Jericho, turned out to be the name of a ‘70’s Australian Christian rock band hellbent on suing to keep the name. Thus, “Above the City” is filled with the growing pains of a new home and a new name. Modern Fix caught up with Smoke or Fire vocalist/guitarist Joe McMahon to see how they’re getting on.

Your website says that you’re on tour now forever. If so, I hope your van has air conditioning. How’s touring been so far?
Our new van does have air conditioning. The old one used to catch on fire all the time. I brought it to the salvage yard the day before we left for the Against Me! tour and they gave me $75 for it. It broke my heart to see it go. Touring has been amazing lately. We did South-by-Southwest for the first time, and touring with Against Me! and the loved ones was a blast. The record came out while we were on this last tour so it was great to have kids coming out to the shows that knew the songs. We missed that interaction with the crowd.

Have your fans adjusted to the name change? Do you still have boxes of Jericho merch lying around?
I think the old fans hate the name change. It was frustrating having to change our name after seven years, and with such short notice. I think some people thought we changed our name because we got signed to Fat Wreck Chords, but really it’s something we’ve been trying to deal with the band that owned the rights to the name since the “Worker’s Union” EP was released. We still have some Jericho t-shirts and other merch around. A lot of people have requested it since we changed the name.

What’s behind the album name, “Above the City”?
There are a few meanings behind it. They’re all pretty well summed up in the songs “Goodbye to Boston” and “Culture as given”. In Boston we hung out on rooftops and in Richmond, people hang out on porches. There are a lot of good as well as some really bad memories about being on the rooftops in Boston.

The album takes a good number of parting shots at Boston. Was your decision to leave mostly practical, or did you really hate the city that much?
I don’t know if it was practical to leave. We all lost girlfriends, jobs, even some friends in the move. The city was too expensive for us to be a band in and the pressure from lack of money and bad relationships for some of us really got to be too much. I was drinking myself to death on purpose at the time because I couldn’t handle things. It’s not the city that I hated. Cities are just buildings and concrete. I love Boston, it’s an amazing city. I hated what my life had become. The parting shots aren’t so much at the city, but more at some individuals who lived there. One person in particular for me. In the end it was my own fault for letting my life get so fucked up.

Much of the lyrics deals with themes of escape and transience. Do you feel more settled now that you’ve moved to Richmond?
In a way. I mean, we’re on the road so much now that I never really feel settled. I feel settled when I’m in one place for more than 48 hours. I think Richmond allowed us a fresh start and also let us look back and make some sense over the previous years. I spent so much time in Boston self-medicating because I didn’t know where I was supposed to be. You’re at this age where everyone is telling you you should have a good job and be thinking about marriage and that you’re doing everything wrong, but everyone around you who has those things is miserable. I wanted to be on the road where I wouldn’t have to deal with any of it. I have a tendency to run from my problems, and I can see that in the lyrics.

Fat Mike from Fat Wreck Chords took you guys to the Punk Rock Bowling Tournament. What was that all about? Which band has the best bowlers (and which has the worst)?
I think that was Mike welcoming us into the FAT family. They are very close at FAT, with the people that worked there, and the people in their bands. We had never met Mike before we signed to FAT, so I’m sure he wanted to get to know us as well. I had no idea how serious some people took the tournament. There are some serious rivalries. BYO bowled next to us, and they were really good. FAT and Epitaph are very good as well. We were probably one of the worst. We finished in the top 50, but I think our handicap was ridiculous.

Was Fugazi an influence for you? The song “The Hard Way” is quite Fugazi-esque, especially the intro.
Definitely. Jeremy (our guitarist) and I had a really horrible band in highschool. He bought a guitar, and I bought a bass, and we tried to teach ourselves how to play. I remember sitting around trying to learn the bass line to “Waiting Room” by Fugazi, and I realized we would never be able to play any of their songs. They were a big influence musically, but also the way they did things as a band. I think that has a lot to do with where our need for control over our band comes from.

The stars align, dead heroes return to life, and record labels spare no expense. Describe your dream tour.
That’s a great question. You would get a different answer from every member of our band. I know because I think we’ve talked about this before. Mine would be with the Replacements, the Clash, the Refused, Against Me!, and the Descendents.

www.jerichomusic.com
(www.smokeorfire.com in the future)

2005 “Above the City” (Fat Wreck)
2003 “Workers Union EP” (as Jericho) (Iodine)