Tag: "Bellows And The Fire" (Lea Bromper song)

At the beginning of Lea Bromper’s “Bellows And The Fire” the guitar sounds like gouging through a dark mood and leaving jagged edges. Then even with the raw, splintery guitar sound the song swings some like a more punk-inflected post-punk song. And the lyrics poetically spell out forcefully in stark imagery the story of someone who has had more than enough of the phony and judgmental social scene that exists in most places where people are able to construct a false sense of their own significance and a persona that adheres to what is at best a temporary and/or tenuous position of power and influence, seduced by their own need to think they’re cool and basing that on the aforementioned. And anyone that has been in the ever evolving local music, art, creative, political or any social scene knows that there will come a time when you’re not going to be on top or near it and the people who aren’t really your friends will more or less abandon you in favor of whoever seems most exciting for similarly vapid reasons. It’s difficult to say what this song is really about but when the lyrics “Truth! Death! Excitement! Uniform drift! That’s where the ice is!” come into a particularly spirited part of the song followed later by the line “those motherfuckers didn’t care about you” it seems like a particularly pointed and poignant commentary on scenesterism and moving beyond it to preserve some of your own dignity. The chorus of “Grab the skull and let the saints come out” is perhaps more obtuse but the way some people hold on to their position in their social circle like it’s the source of their personal power is a little like people holding on to “holy artifacts” that are symbolic but meaningless and the actual power and sense of self comes from within. Musically it’s pretty lo-fi even for punk but also borders on death rock style particularly in the vocals and fans of Pop. 1280 will find something to like in the way Lea Bromper scorches the try hards and instincts in that direction. Listen to “Bellows And The Fire” on YouTube and follow Lea Bromper on Spotify and Instagram.