Name Change : FIR to FUR

We are no longer BIG FIR - from here on out we will be called BIG FUR. This name change signifies a couple of things.

1) It is an homage to Joey Genovese, a founding member of the band, who is no longer playing with us. He helped write all of the tunes on ABU DENVER and was instrumental to both the sound and personality of the band. We will no longer be playing a good number of our older songs - obviously including the ones he sang (hopefully these ones will be played with his new bands) - and some other ones I wrote - mostly because we cannot play them interestingly without his parts and don't really wish for someone else to play them. Many people have played with us over the past two years : Brian Jackson, Daniel Blech, Brian Tully, Andrew Carbone, Isaac Friedman - Heiman, Dan Kruger, Nick Alden, and others. They helped me and Joey make the band what it was too.

2) The band is very different now. For the first time we have a solidified rhythm section and are writing songs as a full band. This feels good and is very different from the cut and paste songwriting of the first album.

We will still contain a lot of stylistic similarities and are re-working some of the older songs for live shows and future recordings. We are still the same band in a lot of ways - but also different. Thus the name change. Sounds the same, looks a little bit different.

That said - we avoided "FUR" in the beginning so as not jump on the animal bandwagon in contemporary indie rock - ie. animal collective, grizzly bear, bear in heaven, fleet foxes, deerhunter, deer tick, deerhoof, caribou, etc. etc. However I came to realize that "FIR" puts off west coast/jam band associations- two things this band has nothing to do with. Besides - there is something to be said for embracing contemporary trends and tropes and attempting to work within them.

I realize how ridiculous it is to fuss about such a trivial thing as a rock band's name. Anyway there you have it.

That means that this blog, our myspace, bandcamp, and youtube page will no longer be regularly updated. I'll still keep them up so people can check out our old songs and videos - which I'm still proud of. We will create a new blog which will debut with new recordings in the coming weeks.

-Ben.