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Washington DC’s Teen Mortgage climbed from the city’s primordial punk soup in 2017
after guitarist/vocalist James Guile relocated to the nation’s capital from Liverpool, UK and by a
stroke of luck was quickly able to find hard hitting drummer Ed Barkauskas via a desperate
craigslist post. As a two piece they stood out – crossbreeding east coast hardcore aggression
and garage/surf sleaze with a focus on pop sensibility. This sonic blend perfectly set the scene
for vocalist and guitarist James Guile to illustrate what he describes as “the absurdity of living in
the era of late stage capitalism and tech feudalism”. He adds, “it’s even woven into our name,
like Mortgage in latin means ‘death pledge’”
Teen Mortgage’s acerbic intensity was noticed by Brooklyn, NY label King Pizza
Records, who released the duo’s 2019 EP Life/Death and 2021’s Smoked. Songs from the EPs
earned Teen Mortgage placements with Shameless, Vans Park Series, and Evil Bikes and
support slots with notable bands like The Chats, Mike Krol, Bass Drum Of Death, Jeff The
Brotherhood, etc.
Known for their rowdy live shows, Teen Mortgage detonates a sonic bomb that leaves no
room for apathy, let alone time to breathe. Guile’s caustic riffs and sneer paired with
Barakauskas’s brawn have fostered a new established meeting ground for those looking for a
place to mosh. Their DIY headline national tours have seen crowd members become rabid as
soon as the pair kick in the first riff of the set, like a pack of coyotes chasing down their prey.
The group’s infectious fuzz bonded with Jello Biafra and George Carlin inspired lyrics light the
fuse for people to explode into a primal frenzy, sweating out the drudgery of living through, once
again in Guile’s words, “the era of late stage capitalism and tech feudalism”.
“These guys have got it going on” – Iggy Pop, BBC6’s The Confidential Show

Most bands fit cleanly within a genre but Tongues of Fire don’t. At their heart they are a punk band, their shows are unhinged, the music is straightforward and hard hitting, there is no trace of pomp or excessiveness but they are accessible and there is a well crafted feel to what they do. The production on their albums is clean and the instrumentals deceptively complex. They have many contemporaries and influences like Bloc Party, Slint, IDLES and The Fall of Troy but can’t be compared to them. Tongues of Fire are firmly themselves, and intent on moving the scene forward.