Campfires Fare Trax Vinyl

Fare Trax is a new album by Portland Oregon based Campfires. The last one, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, came out about 5 years ago, also on Fire Talk. During those 5 years Campfires existed as a live band, watched seasons pass and eventually Jeff and his wife had a baby daughter named Lucy, named after “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. He wrote a song for her while she was still in the womb. Unsurprisingly, that one is called “Lucy’s Song”, and is the last song on this album.

Recorded on the Oregon coast a few months ago in a house overlooking the sea and finished in Portland in a practice space that shares a wall with some local favorites, so you can hear Lithics practicing as “Grand Central Song” fades out. The record is an amalgamation of influences, the Kinks are in there and early Byrds with the aesthetics of raw 60s garage and early 80s punk or anorak pop like Television Personalities & stuff from Sarah Records. Some of the poppier Velvets tunes are a touchstone too, then there’s ambient music and experimental tape work. A gauzey take on folk music, refined and perfected over 10 years, it’s tenderness is complimented by honest and sincere songwriting presented in all it’s ramshackle glory.