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Dive Star materialized spontaneously at the stroke of midnight during the final song at a pom inside of a smoke-filled casino bowling alley beside a lonely stretch of highway on a hot rainy night, tears in their bleary eyes and shots of 99 Rootbeers in their beleaguered breasts. When their sad slow song went silent and the heavy neon-drenched fog lifted from the stage, they had disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only the bittersweet sonic palimpsest of a timeless melancholic melody buzzing in the crowd’s drunken ears, deep longing lingering in their haunted hearts.

Equal Creatures from Atlanta, GA writes vulnerable, melodic indie-rock. The band is composed of Laurie Ray (lead vocals, guitar), Josh Mousie (guitar), Sam Horwitz (drums), Athieno Ngowe (bass), and Laura Wilson (synth, vocals). The band was formed by Ray and Mousie in 2021, and then shortly after Horwitz and Ngowe joined. The original 4-piece recorded and released their first EP “Prey Animal” in 2022. Wilson joined at the close of 2022, and the 5-piece is currently writing their first full-length album, which will be recorded at Atlanta’s Maze Studios in July 2023 and produced by Kegan Krogh (Worlds Greatest Dad, Maze Studios).

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.