Twice featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered, and cited as the “best live band in New Jersey” by youdontknowjersey.com in 2021, JOY ON FIRE is a sax/bass/drum rock-jazz trio that formed in Baltimore and is now based in Trenton and New York City. Their most recent release, 2022’s States of America, peaked at #48 on the Roots Music Reports Top 50 Rock Album Chart and their video for “Uh Huh”—the opening track on States of America—is an official selection at fourteen film festivals worldwide. Their rotoscoped video for “Unknown City,” from Unknown Cities, was a winner at The Brighton Rocks Film Festival.

Additional album releases include The Complete Book of Bonsai, Fire with Fire, Hymn, and Another Adventure in Red—# 7 on Concrete Islands “Albums of the Year 2021.” The band has toured the Eastern Seaboard in support of these releases, from Vermont to New Orleans, and played repeat engagements at festivals and venues including: The Burlington Jazz Fest, Artscape, The Middle East Café in Boston, Baltimore’s Metro Gallery, The Asheville Music Hall, The Stoltz Listening Room, Shapeshifter Lounge in Brooklyn, The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, and Prototype 237 in Paterson, NJ. The group is currently working on its seventh and eighth albums, Scenes from an Unnamed Explosion and Devil Logic, and is celebrating its 15th year as a band in 2024-25.

Praise for Joy on Fire:

“They just blew me away—they are just so fantastic.”
—Bob Boilen, NPR, All Songs Considered

“Pretty much flawless all around. Love this so much I want to be them.”
—Outside Left (on “Selfies” from States of America)

“There’s a magic potency to everything JoF undertakes here.”
—Gareth Thompson, Concrete Islands

“Like much of the band’s catalog, ‘Thunderdome’ crackles with energy.”
—Nick Luciano, 25YL

“Their unique blend of punk and jazz is fully realized on Hymn, owing equally to Sun Ship as it does to Remain in Light. Print it—Joy on Fire is the best live band working in New Jersey.”
—Brian Erickson, youdontknowjersey.com

“The idiosyncratic mastery of Jersey jazz-punk Joy on Fire equates to something like a member of the Dead Kennedys being dropped into a smoky club, jumping on stage with the house band and making it work.”
—Bobby Olivier, NJ.com

“Joy on Fire draws from the eye-popping thrills of punk and the work ethic of prog to bolster their jazz aura … a thrill of high voltage jazz ‘n’ roll.”
—Gareth Thompson, All About Jazz

“The sounds of Joy on Fire are energetic and progressive, featuring dark, edgy bass lines reminiscent of rock licks on a spectrum from the Pixies to Black Sabbath combined with the punctuated horn melodies whose addition call to mind Herbie Hancock jams.”
—Sophia Lucente, The Carolinian

“Renowned for their combustible live performances, this band is way more than a troupe of melodic noiseniks. Indeed the compositional breadth and ambition on Hymn can fair take one’s breath at times.” —All About Jazz

“Joy on Fire edges toward a metal-level punch, but they keep it a bit mellower, without metal’s full-force abandon but with a controlled rush of high energy and high-level musicianship.” —Alison Lanier, Boston Hassle