Misplaced Pages

Flare Acoustic Arts League

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Flare (band))
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's notability guideline for music. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "Flare Acoustic Arts League" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Misplaced Pages's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
(Learn how and when to remove this message)
Flare Acoustic Arts League
Background information
Also known asFlare
OriginBushwick, Brooklyn
GenresOrchpop
Chamber punk
Experimental pop
Psychedelic
Years active1996–2012
LabelsTamper Evident, Mother West, Le Grand Magistery, Affairs of the Heart
MembersLD Beghtol + a cast of thousands...

Flare Acoustic Arts League — A.K.A. Flare (band) — were an experimental pop band formed by guitarist Damian Costilla and singer LD Beghtol in New York in 1996 who made intense, darkly romantic, atmospheric songs deeply influenced by their love of The Smiths, The Magnetic Fields (with whom beghtol sometimes collaborated), Love, various 4AD bands and The Velvet Underground. Flare soon became a small chamber ensemble, augmenting Costilla's guitar work with other instrumentalists for recording/live shows. Costilla left Flare shortly after the release of their debut CD, Bottom (Tamper Evident, 1997). Beghtol continued to record and perform under the Flare moniker until 2001, when he renamed the band Flare Acoustic Arts League.

Beghtol then became Flare's principal songwriter/musical director, and expanded its dreamy minimalism to vastly orchestral arrangements that pitted horns and strings, heavily treated guitars and noise loops against florid melodies and esoteric subject matter. The band's swansong, an ersatz "double EP" entitled Big Top/Encore, which included originals and covers of the swirling Psychedelic Furs song "Yes I Do" and "Morgantown" by the enigmatic Brooklynite Dorsey among its 10 tracks, was released by Affairs of the Heart in August 2011 in various digital and vinyl formats. Flare formally ceased trading in 2012 after the band’s first—and only—tour of Germany and Austria.

  • LD & Damian, circa 1997 LD & Damian, circa 1997

Selected discography

CDs

  • Cut, (Affairs of the Heart, 2009)
  • Hung, (Le Grand Magistery, 2003)
  • Bottom, (Tamper Evident, 1997)

EPs

  • Big Top/Encore, double EP/CD/vinyl (Affairs of the Heart, 2011)
  • Definitive, (Mother West, 2001)
  • Circa, (Subliminal Violence, 2000)

Singles

  • "Hands of Fire”/"Last Train to Clarksville"/“Infamous Last Words," digital single (Affairs of the Heart, 2009)
  • "Back When You Wanted Me"/"Wish It Away," 7-inch vinyl (Unpopular Records, 2005)
  • "Celebrate the Misery”/“Another Bridge,” 7-inch vinyl (Mother West, 2000)

References

  1. "The Advocate". Here. 2003-05-27.
  2. "Erasing clouds interview: Ld beghtol".
  3. "Fluxionesque: New Flare!". 10 May 2009.
Categories:
Flare Acoustic Arts League Add topic