| Tirez Tirez left the Midwest for Big Apple in the late ’70s, driving cross-country in a van with no heat, taking turns warming themselves near the engine just to survive the trip. They’d emerged from the small scene at the Kansas City Art Institute, an unlikely intersection where classical conservatory style training was colliding with more radically inventive creativity perfect for the transition to peak punk-era New York. Their debut performance had been opening for Talking Heads at a 1978 hometown show that left the headliners impressed. David Byrne and the rest of the band encouraged Rouse to head East, and when Tirez Tirez played their first gig at the hallowed CBGB’s, Byrne showed up, sending a buzz through the room and lending serious circuit cred to the transplants. The band was led by St. Louis-born Mikel Rouse, its only constant member through a rotating cast of collaborators across the project’s decade-long run. The group had a new wave and art rock sensibility strongly shaped by minimalism, a sound that evolved considerably over the years — from the angular post-punk of their 1980 debut Etudes to the sparser, synth-driven arrangements of 1987’s Social Responsibility, released on Primitive Man Recording Company and distributed by I.R.S. Records. Their final release, Against All Flags (1988), found the band at the peak of their powers, and was named the New York Times’ Pop Album of the Week upon its release. By then, Rouse was also deep into his parallel project Broken Consort, a chamber ensemble that often shared personnel with Tirez Tirez but pursued a more formally structured, instrumental compositionally-focused direction. We’ve been working with Tirez Tirez closely over the past year introducing their work to the Numero Massive and we’re very excited to launch this campaign with their most in-demand record Story Of The Year. Stay tuned, plenty more to follow. |
