1. Upcoming Shows, Reviews of Our New Album

6/8, we're playing Brooklyn's Luna Lounge...Our third album, "When the High Bell Rings" is out now on Silly Bird Records! Check out the reviews here, and hear MP3s and order it here!

1a. Profile – What is Flaming Fire?

2. A Bunch of Online Comics, and Lauren's Book

Click here to see the “Goddess of War” comic our singer Lauren has been slaving away on. It illustrates her favorite song from our Songs From the Shining Temple album…Now it can be revealed! The secret history of Flaming Fire, dating back hundreds of years in the past! Discover how General Robert E. Lee and Colonel Cuniglius Cronk plotted to create our Brooklyn band of greco-roman chanters today for strange, bizarre purposes. And how through their noble sacrifice, all human beings will someday be freed from gravity, and float in the air! Do you DARE to know the Secrets of Flaming Fire? Do you dare NOT TO? Then read this TRUE HISTORY, beginning with an amazing comic by our bassist, John Mathias, here: http://www.serializer.net/series.php?name=showcase&view=archive&seq=4671 And In March, be sure to check back at Serializer to discover Flaming Fire's Aztec roots, dating back to the dinosaur-ridden Mesozoic Era (as told by Richard O'Connor).... Our singer, Lauren Weinstein's, new book, Girl Stories is the toast of the comics world. We're so proud of her! Buy a copy for only $12... ...AND, the Flaming Fire Bible project was profiled in the Chicago Tribune Sept. 14 and the New York Times on Easter Sunday! Read the articles on our Press page.

3. Flaming Fire fashion, Flaming Fire's Second Album #1 on WFMU, Flaming Fire Bible Project named Best Freaky Collaborative Art Project of 2003 by the Village Voice, Godmagazine.org (Patrick's New Webzine), and Flaming Fire Ladies in Venus Magazine!

John Mathias designed our great new T-shirts, available on our Music page...Great Caesar's Ghost! The Flaming Fire album,"Songs From the Shining Temple", was number one album of summer 2003 on WFMU!... The Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible has been honored in the Village Voice's 2003 Best of NYC issue! For more information on the Bible project, see news item #4....Check out Flaming Fire in the spring issue of Venus magazine (with Cat Power on the cover). Singers Lauren Weinstein and Kate Hambrecht are on page 67 in the fashion spread "Too Cool for School" -- our Press page has the photo up... Our fearless leader Patrick Hambrecht just launched a web zine, godmagazine.org! This Wee0kly World News-style web periodical combines the stuff we like most: Music, God, family, Snake cults, Sun Cults, Classics studies, spirituality, the Emancipation of Humankind from petty Materialism -- and more! No wait, that's it. That's all we care about. Featuring incredible research, art and writing from: Tim Hodler, Cynthia Mitchell, Camilla Ha, Peter Ha, Dame Darcy, Professor Jason Gildow, and Patrick Hambrecht. With incredible articles on: * Bobby Hecksher and the Warlocks * "My Mother Came Back from the Dead" -- The Mary Ha Story * Faun Fables * Why the Sun is a Snake * and shocking new EXCLUSIVE information on the connection between Jesus and the Egyptian Book of the Dead! Let us know what you think. Also, if you have an idea or would like to contribute to the next issue, send us an email.

4. Recent Shows; and Patrick's Book Release

5/15, we opened for Peaches at the Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel as part of a fund-raiser for Printed Matter. The event was emceed by one of our favorite human beings, Mr. John Waters!...4/28, we played Brooklyn's Southpaw at the first WFMU free concert. It was a blast!...3/24, we played NYC’s Tonic, backed by the Scaircrows, w/the enchanting Barbez...At SXSW: Fri., 3/16 we played High Times magazine’s Golden Doobie Lifetime Achievement Awards, at Redrum, 401 Sabine St.; 3/17 we played the Hideout, 617 Congress, with the wonderful Nekomushi and Asakusa Jinta...3/14 we played New Orleans' Circle Bar, 1032 Saint Charles Ave...2/23 we played the Hook in Brooklyn...2/10/07, we played Cakeshop in Manhattan with wonderful Pony Pants...12/31/06 we played 58 Coles St. in Jersey City...12/16 we played Brooklyn's Union Pool w/Antonius Block, Khabarta, Brian Dewan, Matthew Thurber, and John Keen...11/18, we played NYC's Sin-e with The Walking Hellos (the band fronted by literary genius Myla Goldberg) and Hank IV...For our October 2006 tour, we played Detroit’s Lager House 10/10, Chicago’s Subterranean 10/11, Lincoln, Neb.’s Chatterbox 10/13, Oklahoma City’s Conservatory 10/14, Austin’s Room 710 Oct. 15, Dallas’ Club Dada 10/17, Shreveport’s Lil' Joe's Tavern (Jackrabbit Lounge) 10/18, Little Rock’s Treehouse 10/20, Indianapolis’ Melody Inn 10/22, Atlanta’s Eyedrum 10/24, Charlottesville, Va.’s Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar 10/25, and Baltimore’s Talking Head 10/26... 9/28 we played NYC's Spiegeltent w/the jaw-droppingly good The Jewish (Jeff Jensen + Doug Pressman's cabaret/band thing)...8/11, we played NYC's Tonic w/Autodrone & Linda Hagood...7/8, we played Brooklyn's Rubulad; 6/23 we played Union Pool in Brooklyn w/Nora Keyes and Backworld; 4/28 we played Tonic in NYC; 5/11 Silverlake Lounge in Los Angeles w/ Dame Darcy; 5/12 Plush in Tucson; 5/13 Divebar in Las Vegas; 5/14 Boardner's in Hollywood; 5/17 Twelve Galaxies in San Francisco (Mission Creek Festival)...1/13/06, we played Tonic w/Reverend Glasseye and Mirror Mirror! 10/16/05 Flaming Fire played NYC's Mercury Lounge w/the lovely Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Barbez... 6/22 Flaming Fire played Tonic in Manhattan...4/29 we returned triumphantly to Kate's grandfather's alma mater when we played the MIT senior house steer roast, with the enchanting Apes. 4/23 we played accompanied by the amazing Dewanatron at Brooklyn's Galapagos, with Haunted Pussy, Breast-Fed Yak, Squaw and the beautiful noise vixen Carbon. 4/8 we played Odeon Bar in San Francisco with Faun Fables and The Angelo; and 4/9 we all played Oakland Metro. 1/29/05 we LOVED playing Athens, Georgia's Tasty World. 10/29 we played Rubulad's big Halloween party at the Happy Birthday Hideout... 9/25 we played a great show at The Hook with: Dame Darcy's Death By Doll, Reverend Glasseye, and Autodrone; and premiere the animated video for “The Sun is a Snake,” lovingly hand-drawn by Cynthia Mitchell... 7/30 we played a very special collaborative performance with supergeniuses Brian and Leon Dewan at THE HOOK. Also performing were Marianne Nowottny, END, and Lou Underwood. Plus, it was the premiere of the hilarious documentary Manhattan Madness 2! 7/14 we played the Losers' Lounge Serge Gainsbourg tribute at Fez in NYC...6/19, we played the Rubulad party at the CSV Center...5/29 we played La Belle Epoque....4/16 we played The Hook with The Problematics, who play great Replacements’-style rock; the gorgeous and law-droppingly talented Linda Hagood (ex-Smack Dab); Dark Inside the Sun, this super-arty one-man band where the guy played drum and guitar simultaneously, and not in the way you’d think; Becky Stark of the Mystical Unionists had a beautiful voice with Bjork-y richness and her songs will haunt you for weeks; and bluesy freaks Old Time Relijun, who are so magnificent words cannot express…
3/19 we played Piano's...3/11 we played Maxwell's in Hoboken with American Watercolor Movement, The Mometers (who rocked so very hard), and Jett Brando...3/5 we played the Madagscar Institute benefit in Williamsburg... 2/27 we played Sin-é in NYC with the Act and Velcro Lewis and his 100 Proof Band...Feb. 26 we played the Talking Head in Baltimore with Velcro Lewis; earlier 2/26, Lauren and Patrick did an Illustrated Bible event at Atomic Books... 2/21 we played the Cambridge Family YMCA in Boston with Beast and Dreamhouse, these awesome hippies who make the audience watch them play under a giant tarp! Also earlier in the day 2/21, Lauren and Patrick did an Illustrated Bible event at Million Year Picnic, where they got free cookies.... 2/15 we played the Living Room in NYC with the charming King of France and the lovely Zambonis....1/16 we played at Tonic with the beautiful Mad Scene... 1/7/2004 we played the LEGAL ACTION COMICS Art Show at CB'S GALLERY with the lovely Mz. Pakman....
11/21/2003, we played CB's 313 Gallery with Mirah, Anna Oxygen, and The Blow. It was all ages and we were the only drunken buffoons in the joint -- it was a little lonely....11/9, we played the WFMU record fair at 125 W. 18th St., NYC. We had a super blast under the bright, bright lights. A million thanks to the wonderful staff at WFMU: Mike, Jason and everybody, especially Scott Williams, the Orlando Bloom of freeform radio... Halloween we played at the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St., with Bling Kong and Les Sans Culottes.... 10/26, we played at Siné, 148-150 Attorney St, with Sightings, Terrestrial Tones, Mouth Us, Naturally, and Axolotl for the release of the Psych-o-path Records compilation, "Space Is No Place." ...10/14, we played The Hook with Crimson Sweet + 801. ...9/12, we played at Free 103 Radio in Williamsburg with Panicsville, Carlos Giffoni + Jodie Mecanic, and The Lotus.... 9/8 we played Scott "the Orlando Bloom of freeform radio" Williams' show on WFMU. It's archived on wfmu.org....8/29, we played Duggan's in Lincoln, Neb., our old stomping grounds -- we could hardly believe how much fun it was! We love all you crazy Husker bikers!... Aug. 30 our singer Lauren had a signing for her new book, Inside Vineyland at Quimby's Books in Chicago. Thanks so much to the Quimby's staff and everyone who attended. Aug. 31 we played one of our favorite all-time venues, the Empty Bottle in Chicago with DJ Unknown of Fischer Spooner and Misty Martinez, as part of Misty's Labor Day Seasonal Social. We had a greatgreatgreat time -- the crowd was awesome!.... 8/23 we had a big Bible party at Luxx in Williamsburg. We performed all of Isaiah 19 -- a story of Egyptian/Hebrew conflict & reconciliation -- with Brian Dewan narrating, and members from Dust Dive, Your Team Ring, Foamula & Flaming Fire playing wall-to-wall samplers, while an image for every verse (1-25) was projected and manipulated by Kyle Lapidus & Tali Hinkus of Viduo. Also, there were musical performances by: Flaming Fire, Chicago hotties Foamula, Pinebender & Love of Everything. This show debuted "In The Future -- We Will Float" a 5-page color comic book that FF cartoonist/bassist John Mathias illustrated and Patrick wrote about Cuniglius Cronk, the Civil War soldier who travels through the astral planes on his Cyborg ostrich, Galveston, and battles universe-eating varmints. Congrats to the cute attendee who received a copy of the first installment of this epic for illustrating 3 Bible verses... 8/16 we had a ball playing Rubulad on Queens Blvd. 8/8 we were elated to perform in the Losers' Lounge tribute to the greatest band of all time, Devo, at the Knitting Factory... 7/25 we played CB's Gallery to celebrate the release of our singer Lauren's new book, Inside Vineyland. Opening was magnificent weirdo Nick Danger, who blew our minds by singing a bunch of the songs from Hair, even the "White Boys are so Pretty" song!... 7/15 we were honored to play at Ivy South, opening for Deregulator, whom we've long adored... July 11,12 & 14, we were in the Losers' Lounge Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg. We sang Serge's scandalous "Lemon Incest," with new words all about the incestuous gods of ancient Egypt! Email kate@flamingfire.com if you want a copy of the new lyrics... We performed with a new flag routine in the Losers' Lounge tribute to XTC June 11 and 13 at Fez... 5/9 at CB's Gallery we played with this amazing noise band, Zeehas; 12 Wait who run all around and holler in a really catchy way, and the drop-dead wonderful cabaret chanteuse Tulip Sweet and her Trail of Tears. Also, through special arrangement with genius director Trent Harris, we screened the classic film The Beaver Trilogy. The Beaver Trilogy is a series of three pieces about the same subject, a young man from a small town called Beaver who is obsessed with Olivia Newton John. The first piece is a documentary. The second piece is a dramatic work based on the documentary starring Sean Penn. The third piece is yet another dramatic work, this time starring Crispin Glover. If you ever get the chance to see this beautiful film, drop everything and watch it... Our CD release party for "Songs From the Shining Temple" was 4/11 at Luxx in Williamsburg. It was a great, great night of entertainment. Our very special opening acts were Brian Dewan (who plays electric zither), Armen Ra (who plays theremin), and Von Von Von (who raps Belgian-style). The book release party for Patrick's mini-book "Santa Klaus and the Bears" 8/16, was a great success. (Visit Kaboom Press to order a copy of "Santa" -- beautifully hand-bound by a beautiful girl named Inju -- for only a couple bucks.) We played with For0d Wright, who was really funny and dapper in a chimp-face printed smock; Pothole Skinny, who play beautiful music with that bottom-of-a-whiskey-bottle reverb; and the Centimeters, who are sort of like Dame Darcy in that they're spooky and creepy -- like how 100-hundred-year-old broken dolls would sound if they could sing. Thanks to everyone who came, and especially Steve at Kaboom and Gabe at Perhaps Transparent Records... Before that, we played Northsix with LiveSexAct, Krakatoa, and Shy Child, who are all really good...
In Dec. 2002, we played Hank's Saloon with fellow Midwest expats the Afflictions, who rock mightily... In November, we played P.S. 122's "Avant-Garde-Orama." We were delighted by fellow performer Armen Ra, this tiny drag queen who plays theremin; he was amazing... 10/26, we played CB's 313 Gallery, opening for Dame Darcy. The show celebrated the release of Darcy's new book "Frightful Fairy Tales" (published by 10 Speed Press). It's great -- it features some of her most beautiful artwork and best stories to date... 2/7, we performed with the twin viceroys of NYC hard rock - Bad Wizard and the Fire Gods at Kenny’s Castaways! Bad Wizard are incredible live, and true American rock n roll. The Fire Gods is the other band for Shawn of the Toilet Boys... Feb. 2, Flaming Fire embarked on an intense, mammoth TWO CITY MEGA-TOUR, playing with the Moldy Peaches and Happy Supply at the Empty Bottle in Chicago! And then in NYC the Thursday after that! Much adoration to Misty Martinez (aka avant-garde superstar of 2 Live and Shave in L.A. and Cock E.S.P. -- and one of the most seriously amazing and cerebral artists we know) for helping to make this show happen. Also thanks to all our shadowy operatives in Chicago, who helped us do this: Camilla Ha, Mark & Trixie Wolberg, Jami Primmer, Cornelia & Dave, Lauren’s relatives, Andy Slater, Pete & Kelly at the Empty Bottle, Hannah/Liz at Quimby’s Comics!... Earlier on this same day, Sat., Feb 2, Lauren performed a live multimedia version of her The Ganzfeld comics piece, "The Bird Watchers" at Quimby’s Comics. A story of teen sex, metaphysical dread and robots, the performance included painted works and a live musical score by Patrick. (Lauren presented this again at PS 122 in NYC.) Flaming Fire also performed 3 songs at Quimby’s.

5. The Flaming Fire Bible Database Is Up And Running!

Please contribute an original illustration to our hugely ambitious new project, The Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible. We want to have the most thoroughly illustrated version of the King James Bible ever (plus misc. Apocrypha, by popular demand). Every verse will have an original accompanying drawing--we have about 1,300 so far; only 35,565 to go! We have art by Tony Millionaire, Danny Hellman, Farel Dalrymple, Dame Darcy, Eric Reynolds, Grant Reynolds, Bob Sikoryak, Lauren Weinstein, Esao Andrews, Muwen Pan, Theo Edmands, Ken Habarta, Patrick Smith (creator of Vector Park), and tons of other amazing folks.

You can upload a jpeg of your work directly onto the website by clicking on the verse, then on the "not illustrated yet" icon. Or you can mail a picture to me and I'll scan it in:

Kate Hambrecht
PMB 112, 302 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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4/20/2003 New York Times article about the Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible Project
In the Land of the Hip, a Little Bit of Wholesome

April 20, 2003
By SARAH SCHMIDT
It was a Friday night at CB's 313 Gallery, a small bar and performance space on the Bowery at Bleecker Street in the East Village. About 50 young artists and musicians sporting ironic T-shirts and thrift-shop clothes were deep in thought - heads down, colored pencils poised, eyes focused on the sheets of paper they'd been given.

The Velvet Underground played on the sound system and waitresses brought fresh rounds of Guinness, but no one even looked up, so intent were they on their task. A young man wearing a bright red suit handed newcomers their assignments - I Peter 2:16, II Kings 16:15, Matthew 18:22 - and everyone got down to the business at hand: illustrating Bible stories.

The drawings are destined for the Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible, an Internet database and a multivolume book that, if all goes well, will contain individual illustrations of all 36,665 verses of the King James Bible, along with portions of the Apocrypha commonly included in Roman Catholic Bibles. Patrick and Kate Hambrecht, who live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and moved from Nebraska six years ago, conceived the plan.

"The idea in a nutshell is to get as large a collection of visual commentary on the Bible as possible, to allow people to interact with the Bible in a creative, personal way," says Mr. Hambrecht, 29, a freelance event planner and the son of a Baptist minister.

How do the hip, disaffected residents of Williamsburg and the East Village react to this wholesome project?

"It's been surprising and very cool when we ask our artist friends to contribute and they say, 'Oh, yeah, I wanna do Jude,' or 'Oh, yeah, I have just the thing in mind,' '' said Ms. Hambrecht, 28, a copy editor at Jane magazine, who was raised Catholic but describes herself as an "aspiring Baptist.'' "It turns out that everyone has0 a favorite Bible story.''

Mr. Hambrecht added, "Believe it or not, there is a huge number of artists who'd rather be doing something instead of just sitting around drinking beer in some loft, or at least they'd rather be drawing Bible pictures while they're sitting around drinking beer in some loft."

But, he recalled, "We did have one snooty guy dressed in black with spiky hair come up to us once and say, 'I am zee Antichrist,' and I was like 'Great, then you can draw one of the verses about the Antichrist.' But he wasn't interested."

The idea f0or the project came from Mr. Hambrecht, a voluble, energetic comic book fanatic who often wears red and can talk a blue streak about everything from Christianity to Carl Jung. He enlisted the help of his petite and soft-spoken wife, and the two then asked a friend, Adam Mayer, to design and build the database.

Last fall, the couple began spreading the word through e-mail, Bible art parties and personal appearances at arts events around the city. Volunteers either do a drawing on the spot or send a scanned image to the online database, at www.flamingfire.com/bible.html.

So far, the Hambrechts have collected illustrations of more than 600 verses from about 130 artists. If and when completed, the multivolume book, which is being designed and produced by a city publisher called Kaboom! Press, would be many feet thick.

The contributions range from rudimentary line drawings to elaborately detailed pen-and-ink illustrations by professional artists; they vary greatly, too, in how literally they interpret the verses. Andrea Stevenson, a sculptor for the American Museum of Natural History and the volunteer artist for Matthew 5:38 ("An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"), did a black-and-white line drawing of two pairs of men, one pair plucking out each other's eyes and the other pair using pliers to yank out each other's teeth.

For Luke 2:19 ("But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart''), a retired voiceover actress from Los Angeles named Ione Citrin drew a soft, blue-toned illustration of Mary with the Infant Jesus gazing heavenward.

Ms. Hambrecht, who describes herself as "a terrible artist," decided to learn one simple goat drawing and then create variations of it to cover the numerous goat-related verses of the Bible. "Goats were constantly being sacrificed in the Old Testament," she said.

At CB's Gallery that Friday night, Dean Radinovsky, a painter from Woodside, Queens, nursed a beer and worked on his ink drawing of John 12:3, in which the sister of Lazarus wipes Jesus' feet with her hair.

"It's really cool to be put on the spot and asked to come up with an image like this," said Mr. Radinovsky, adding that while he is "spiritually independent," he likes the use of the Bible as artistic inspiration. "There are tons of powerful images like this in the Bible,'' he said. "Western art is very much indebted to Christian imagery and by extension, I am very much indebted to Christian imagery."

Jody Kivort, a freelance photographer from Fort Greene, Brooklyn, happily drank a Red Stripe beer as he worked on his drawing.

"I went to another one of their parties in Williamsburg and it was a pretty intense scene,'' he said. "Everyone was, like, super-intense, but I ended up drawing a lawn mower or something. I guess I'm not that familiar with the Bible since I'm a Jew, but I just think it's a good idea to get everyone together to draw like this."

Esao Andrews, a Williamsburg artist who creates illustrations for skateboards, also played down the religious aspect of the work. "Drawing these verses is fun,'' he said, "and I think most people are just into that."

The Hambrechts, who are planning a children's version of their illustrated Bible and who also run a religious zine at godmagazine.org, say the project is not aimed at pushing the Baptist denomination or even Christianity in general. As Mr. Hambrecht put it, "It's still a good way to encourage people to read a great work of literature and an incredible spiritual testament. You can take it from wherever you're coming from."

6. International Radio Bulletin

Flaming Fire is being played all OVER THE WORLD, much to our surprise! We’re sort of shocked, but right pleased. Here’s a round-up of some stations we’ve found out favor the Fire:
New York City: WFMU 91.1 FM and WNYU’s Plastic Tales 89.1 FM
San Francisco: KFJC 89.7 FM and KKUP 91.5 FM
UK: Cambridge University Radio
Belgium’s 106.2FM radio ZRO
Olympia Washington’s Community Radio 89.3 FM
Meadville, PA: WARC FM 90.3, Allegheny College
Sydney, Australia: 102.5 FM
Globally Syndicated: Future Now Radio Show with Lord Litter
We’d love to know about other stations playing playing us too, if there are any others out there.

7. Progress Report on the Cuniglius Cronk Video Game

Jonny A (FF guitarist), Gabriel Walsh (our label mastermind), Lou Underwood (occasional FF sample composer), and Alexandra Reshanov ("Get Old and Die" cover designer) are about half finished drawing and animating a computer game of our epic comic-book saga (see #1 for a refresher on Cronk).

8. Incredible Site Redesign by Khabarta (Ken Habarta)<0/h4>

We have a stupifyingly great new website with dancing, singing Flash animation fun. Many thanks to Ken Habarta, our web designer hero. <