Art In Manila | Set The Woods On Fire

It’s not often that I listen to an album solely due to a band’s name, but that was the case when I first glanced over the cover for Art In Manila’s debut album Set The Woods On Fire. Of course when I noticed Manila, I had to find out what the story was behind the name choice. I’m Filipino myself and It’s not everyday that you see the capital of the Philippines sprawled over an album cover.

As I started to compile information on the band, I shockingly discovered that this was a new project of Orenda Fink, one-half of the defunct dream-pop duo Azure Ray. Shortly after releasing her solo release Invisible Ones on Saddle Creek in 2005, Fink formed Art Belle which consisted of her touring crew featuring members from Bright Eyes, The Anniversary, The Good Life, etc. The band changed it’s name soon after to Art In Manila in what the band mentions as “a nod to radio host Art Bell’s exodus to the Phillipines” Interesting eh? Score one for the motherland…

I’ve had the album sitting on my desk for a few weeks, but I got around to listening to it fully over the weekend during a trip to Birmingham. Lots of excellent tracks sprinkled throughout that range from delicate ballads to full-on Cat Power-like, rough around the edges rock songs. Definitely a record to look forward to as Set The Woods On Fire will be released August 28 on Saddle Creek. Along with the few tracks below, you can download another one on their myspace page.

myspace | website | pre-order
Art In Manila | “Set The Woods On Fire”
Art In Manila | “Our Addictions”

The Radio Dept. :: “Heaven’s On Fire”

::Download:: Saddle Creek Sampler

Georgie James | Places

The Daily Graboid | 08/08/07

Dappled Cities | Granddance

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 5:54 pm and is filed under The Yellow Stereo, Upcoming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.