The Library is on Fire

The Library Is on Fire took its name from French poet René Char and emerged as founder Steve Five’s central creative endeavor. The group’s approach merges the raw guitar rock of Dinosaur Jr. with the lo-fi melodies of Guided by Voices while channeling broader indie-rock currents of the 1990s. What began in 2007 as a solo recording venture for Five prompted a journey from New York to the quiet college town of Kent, OH, where sessions at the renowned Waterloo Studios paired him with Guided by Voices producer Todd Tobias. Those recordings yielded the band’s first release, the 2008 album Cassette. To translate the material to the stage, Five enlisted bassist Mark Shue and drummer Peter Sustarsic. Following an especially fertile stretch of composition, the trio returned to Waterloo and tracked the follow-up Magic Windows, Magic Nights, issued in 2010 by (Fill in the Blank) Records.