Category Archives: Press

New album, States of America, out TODAY! + American Pancake review

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Today, Friday, June 10th, we release our sixth* album, States of America, on Procrastination Records! We’re really excited to release this because we started writing and recording it at the same time we were working on our last two releases, Unknown Cities and Another Adventure in Red. But this album is particularly special to us because it is the first to feature our lyricist, Dan Gutstein, on nearly every track. It is also first one we fully engineered ourselves at the Princeton University Recording Studios and at Centre Street “Studio”, where we also filmed the music videos for several tracks on the album.

Many thanks to Mat Leffler-Schulman, Dan Coutant, Tommy Hambleton, Gareth Thompson, Bob Boilen, Brian Erickson, Bill Hafener, Ted Schreiber, Zach Herchen, Nick Luciano, Ray Rizzo, Mike Cuomo, Mika Godbole, Mark Isaac, Gabriela Bulisova, Brian Platzer, Dmitri Tymoczko, Jeff Snyder, Joe Martin, Mark Eichenberger, Juri Seo, Damien Davis, Daphne Bacon, Cody Snyder, Adam Lewis, Jacqueline Codiga, Singer Mali, and Bill Pierce.

And we’re super grateful to Robb at American Pancake for the kind words about our single “Happy Holidays.”

Listening to “Happy Holidays” and subsequently delving into the works of [Trenton, NJ]’s jazz punk group Joy on Fire had me doing some free form dancing (without the benefits of alcohol I might add) and I couldn’t help but think of iconic old school punk / alt rock artists like Gang of Four but especially the spastic jazz punk leanings of incendiary 70’s vocalist and saxophone charmer James Chance from The Contortions (later James Chance and the Contortions). Within Joy on Fire’s squirrely jazz punk sound featuring wonderfully, potently feral saxophone by Anna Meadors, jagged heavy bass and guitar by John Paul Carillo, Chris Olsen’s versatile drumming and Dan Gutstein’s darkly drawn existential words, “We’re all gonna spend a lot of time in graveyards” feels wonderfully manic. 

Robb Donker Curtius, American Pancake

We’ll be playing an album release show at John and Peter’s in New Hope, PA, on Saturday, June 18th, and we have several dates along the East Coast in July — stay tuned for details!

You can also check out a playlist of all of our music videos that go with this album HERE!

*sixth album not including two 3RC albums and the Thunderdome EP

New single & video, Selfies, featured on Jammerzine, NPR New Music Friday, and TJOVM

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We’re so thrilled to release our latest single, Selfies, and a video for it, created by Gabriela Bulisova and Mark Isaac!

Ryan Martin, of Jammerzine, described it as “[s]onically decadent in all the right spots,” cutting-edge, and “music as a lesson. Beautiful.”

William Helms of The Joy of Violent Movement wrote:

States of America‘s latest single “Selfies” is a neurotic, New Wave-meets-No Wave-meets-art punk ripper centered around a menacing Stooges-like groove, thunderous drumming, Gutstein’s sardonic, spoken word lyrics about the emptiness and vapidity of social media narcissism paired with Meadors’ saxophone skronk and wailing that initially creeps its way into the arrangement and builds up in intensity as then song ends with an explosive and chaotic coda. The song captures the relentless need to be liked, seen as cool, successful and popular that’s inspired by the social media age in a way that’s startlingly accurate yet wildly hilarious.

William Helms

The single was also featured on NPR’s New Music Friday Spotify playlist!

Many thanks William, Ryan, Jacqueline Codiga, and to Tommy Hambleton of Procrastination Records! We’re excited to be gearing up to a full album release this summer for States of America, which will be out on June 11.

Another Adventure in Red #7 in Concrete Islands’ Albums of the Year 2021

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New Jersey jazz-rock trio Joy on Fire continued a prolific run here, proving that structure and melodic might can alter the consciousness with the same abandon as free improv. (Gareth Thompson)

Gareth Thompson, Concrete Islands

Thanks again to Gareth Thompson and Stewart Gardiner at Concrete Islands for including us in their Albums of the Year list, we are honored to be a part of such a great group of records and artists. Check out the whole list here.

“With its eruptive stream of energy, Unknown Cities is another eye-popping ride on the wild side.” (All About Jazz) // Out now on Procrastination Records

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Unknown Cities continues a prolific run for the band and opens with the tigerish “Kung Fu Tea Party.” It sets up their familiar template of buzz-saw guitars and punk-encrusted percussion, with saxophonist Anna Meadors soaring as ever to giddy heights. 

Gareth Thompson, All About Jazz

We are thrilled the announce our most recent release, Unknown Cities, out now on Procrastination Records! Available wherever you buy music, and you can get it on our Bandcamp page as well.

We’re also honored that Gareth Thompson reviewed it for All About Jazz, you can read the whole review here.

“Melodic muscle”: HYMN reviewed at All About Jazz

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We are so thrilled about our recent glowing review from Gareth Thompson at All About Jazz of our album Hymn! Gareth is a novelist and music critic based in the UK and he first found our music through our mutual love of King Crimson.

“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. The numbers twist and spout with constant surprise elements, never leaving us in a state of stasis. If this changeful element comes from their close study of King Crimson, then all well and good. But a fluctuating aspect within any opus is welcome, to challenge creator and listener alike.”

We are grateful to Gareth for the kind words and to the wonderful guest musicians and friends who joined us for this album, Domenica Romagni on cello, Rachel Aubuchon on piano, Pascal Le Boeuf on piano. It was engineered, mixed and co-produced by Mat Leffler-Schulman at Mobtown Studios, with addition recording engineering by Zach Herchen, and mastered by Bill Hafener at Silo Recordings. And many thanks to Tommy Hambleton of Procrastination Records for releasing it!

Read the whole thing here!

Also, in case you missed it, there are two music videos for tracks from this album, “Hymn (part 1)” and “Punk Jazz“!

Joy on Fire’s HYMN #7 on YDKJ’s Top Twenty Albums of 2020

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Many thanks to Brian Erickson for including us in his Top Twenty list for 2020 for our album Hymn, released earlier this year on Tommy Hambleton’s Procrastination Records! Brian is kind enough to say, “Joy on Fire is the best live band working in New Jersey right now. And their albums are a vital taste of the fury they wreak on stage.” The complete write up on You Don’t Know Jersey is here.

Brian plays in a great live band himself, The Extensions, and when we saw them at Asbury Lanes in 2019, we picked up a copy of their latest record, Bellicose, a fantastic rock album with hard hitting guitars and great lyrical invention.  We look forward to the possibility of gigs in 2021, and of sharing the stage with The Extensions, maybe at John and Peter’s in New Hope, where we first met Brian back in the days when gigs were a thing.

And, in case you missed it, here is the music video for “Hymn (part 1)” that our saxophonist Anna made in August!

Joy on Fire’s “Thunderdome” song and video debut on NPR’s All Songs Considered today, November 17; Thunderdome digital EP out now!

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 “Thunderdome” and its music video, directed by Damien Davis, was debuted on today’s episode of NPR’s All Songs Considered, November 17th, 2020! Check it out here!

We could not be more thrilled to share this music and video with you, and we are releasing the Thunderdome EP digitally on Bandcamp today as well. It was released as a special edition vinyl-only extended single earlier this year, with the plan that we’d be able to sell them at shows, but, as you all know, things changed. The vinyl is also available to buy online, and the album art, by Gerald Ross, is stunning.

This EP is part of a full length album that is currently in progress, States of America, our collaboration with poet Dan Gutstein.

The other track from the EP, “Uh Huh,” has a video by Mark Isaac and Gabriela Bulisova, released earlier this year, which has been a finalist in the Prisma Rome, London Rocks, and LA Rocks Film Festivals.

We hope you tune in to NPR’s All Songs Considered, it is such an honor to be a part of their show again. Many thanks to All Songs Considered creator Bob Boilen!

Joy on Fire’s first vinyl release, Thunderdome

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Cover art by Gerald Ross

Below is the official press release for Thunderdome. If you’d like to purchase a copy, please contact the band directly at booking@joyonfire.com ($20 + $3 shipping in the US, or available at shows for $20).

Joy on Fire Press Release
Winter 2020
Thunderdome Extended Single
 Limited-edition 12” 180 gram vinyl, play at 45 RPM (digital download included)

Joy on Fire is proud to release Thunderdome Extended Single, a two-song introduction to the group’s new sound, which blends its trademark punk-jazz instrumentals with vocals throughout, a first in the band’s history. An eight-song LP, States of America, is currently being mixed for prospective release later this year.

The danceable “Thunderdome” identifies the phenomenon of dejected people “revolving like minutes in a display case” considered alongside the “anger and decency” of political outrage. Funky and energetic, the song closes after a rollicking sax solo with the ultimate question: “What’s love?”

The A Side concludes by reviling the deadliness of gun violence in the metallic, soaring “Uh Huh,” wherein “Earth is / The gun raised at the unarmed,” yet Earth is not just the incipient moment in a confrontation but a constellation of actions and consequences: “What will our brothers be singing / When we return their bodies to the Earth?”

Three remixes of “Thunderdome” on the B Side offer listeners reconceived horns, distortion, guitars, and beats. These mixes are radical reconstructions that create the music anew.

By enmeshing threads of influence that range from the eclectic rock of King Crimson and The Talking Heads to the spirituality of John and Alice Coltrane, from the clipped postmodernism of European poet Paul Celan to the basslines of Sleaford Mods, Morphine, and Joy Division, Joy on Fire continues to produce pioneering music that swings hard and thumps breath into the bodies of listeners. 

Joy on Fire is John Paul Carillo (bass guitar, electric guitar, lead composer), Anna Meadors (alto and baritone saxophones, vocals), Chris Olsen (drums, percussion), and Dan Gutstein (lyrics, vocals). 

Joy on Fire Featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered

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2019 is off to an AMAZING start for Joy on Fire. Two weeks into the new year and we find ourselves honored with a spot on NPR’s All Songs Considered, hosted by Bob Boilen.

On this episode of the podcast, Bob features JoF’s latest single Hymn which will appear on the upcoming album of the same name. Of Joy on Fire, Bob says, “It’s a perfect name for the band, and they just blew me away—they are just so fantastic.” The Joy on Fire segment begins around the 14-minute mark, but check out the whole show. We’re in good company, as other segments include Lana Del Rey, Telekinesis, and The Wild Reeds.

Joy on Fire at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, June 9, 2018.
Photo by Brian Jenkins

Hymn, written by John Paul Carillo, is a hopeful and bittersweet celebration of the life of his mother, whose passing inspired him to capture her sense of humor and joyous spirit in song. You can listen to the song on our bandcamp page, where you’ll also find our first two releases, Fire with Fire, released November 1, 2017 on Procrastination Records, and The Complete Book of Bonsai, released independently on September 1, 2013.

Bob is an aficionado of vintage synthesizers and makes adventurous electronic music, which is how we first came to meet him.  He sat in regularly with DC-based improvisational renegades Heterodyne during the band’s lifespan.  Joy on Fire shared the stage with Heterodyne many times and has become friends and comrades with the group.  Be sure to check out Heterodyne’s deep archive of expansive improvisations, as well as Bob’s absolutely beautiful ambient album, Take It To Bed: Music For Clouds.

Bob performing on the Arp Odyssey synthesizer with Heterodyne, led by Maria Shesiuk and Ted Zook. Photo by Aaron Mertes

So, thanks very much to Bob Boilen, All Songs Considered producer and co-host Robin Hilton, and the whole All Songs Considered crew for an auspicious start to the new year. We are grateful for your support and enthusiasm. Stay tuned for much more excitement in 2019.

Joy on Fire Makes Portugal’s Jazz.pt Best of 2018

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Happy New Year from Joy on Fire to you.  

2018 was a fantastic year for Joy on Fire, and as we approached the cusp of 2019, we were contacted by music journalist Gonçalo Falcão of Portugal’s Jazz.pt website.  Gonçalo was assembling a year-end list of his favorite albums and wanted to let us know that our Procrastination Records release Fire With Fire would appear on that list.  

Joy on Fire is in very, very good company, as Gonçalo’s list of Best International Discs also includes releases from Andrew Cyrille/Wadada Leo Smith/Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, and Ambrose Akinmusire, among others.  We are thrilled and gratified to discover we’ve made such an impact in such a highly regarded field—and with a journalist who has deep roots in the music.

Guitarist Gonçalo Falcão was a student of and collaborator with Vítor Rua, an iconic figure in Portuguese creative music.  Falcão went on to study composition with Louis Andriessen and Salvatore Sciarrino, and also performed with Evan Parker, Eddie Prévost, Miguel Carvalhais, and many more.  Prior to Jazz.pt, Falcão wrote for the Monitor and All Jazz publications.

Joy on Fire’s Fire With Fire was released on Maryland-based Procrastination Records and received a four-star review from All About Jazz.  Watch for new Joy on Fire releases in 2019.  Meanwhile, enjoy this Joy on Fire video.