Firescape

Josh Partington, guitarist and chief songwriter for the indie rock band Something Corporate—whose sound fuses Coldplay with Jimmy Eat World—started Firescape as an outlet apart from his main group. Something Corporate’s indefinite hiatus, triggered in part by leukemia afflicting singer and pianist Andrew McMahon, led Partington to create Firescape so he could pursue another facet of his songwriting. Assuming lead vocals himself, he enlisted guitarist and keyboardist Brian Weber, bassist Hunter MacDonald, and drummer Corey Rife, giving the new project a denser, more aggressive character than Something Corporate’s piano-centered melodies; dual guitars sometimes edge toward Queens of the Stone Age stoner rock while his own emo delivery occasionally turns tremulous. The band signed with the modest independent label We the People (home to the City Drive and Astoria) in 2006 and issued its debut album, Dancehall Apocalypse, in spring 2007.