I've never been fond of the term Shoegazing, but it's the first adjective that comes to mind when listening to Amusement Parks on Fire's self-titled debut album. Scan the media reviews on the band's website and you'll see that pejorative term make several appearances, along with predictable comparisons to My Bloody Valentine. There is certainly a resemblance, but APOF are seldom as ethereal or warped as MBV. Other influences, like Foo Fighters or even Dinosaur Jr. also make an impression, pushing APOF's sound out of dreamland and into harder, grungier territory. I've carefully avoided grunge and its offspring for many years, but APOF's blending of styles works surprisingly well. They achieve just the right balance of droning noise and power pop.

It figures that I would start getting into APOF right after they played three NYC area shows last week. If anyone went to any of these shows, please let me know what you thought.

The APOF website has two radio sessions and two videos available for download in Real audio/video format.

APOF's MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/amusementparksonfire