flashpapr is a michigan-based band that plays broken folk music for broken hearts.
Fred Thomas, Jacob Danziger, Zachary Wallace, Ben Bracken, Ida Pearle
Comprising the quieter side of the Detroit rock scene, the members of flashpapr have full or part-time associations with Saturday Looks Good To Me, His Name Is Alive, and Ida. Always recorded by Warn Defever, flashpapr's albums capture the sad and hopeful feeling of being alive. Their live shows are often painfully earnest attempts to destroy the idea that they are the band and that you are the audience. "You are my best friend, you are the most beautiful thing I keep inside my heart" is pretty much the idea.
PRESS:
Anyone close to [Saturday Looks Good To Me and Ida's] sounds would not be shocked to find small, lovely magic glowing at the heart of Flashpapr's
well-arranged chamber pop.
-Time Out New York
Fans of Saturday Looks Good To Me should know that the group's
mastermind, Fred Thomas, has another band - a better band -
called flashpapr. Because flashpapr's members are all busy with
other projects, they remain perfectly obscure, a precious secret
for friends and friends of friends. Their new self-titled,
self-released offering is one of the most beautiful records
I've heard this year. With a drumless, electro-acoustic lineup
(acoustic guitar, upright bass, two violins, and whispered,
atmospheric electronics) they make simple, patient, loving music,
unabashedly romantic and without a trace of melodrama or irony.
Thomas's talent is obvious in Saturday Looks Good To Me's
catchy, classic pop songs, but the songs he writes for flashpapr
are less casual and considerably more powerful, filled with
arresting images: "Were we to dance in dresses/ Made of
our old letters/ Costumes so fragile they might come apart."
-Salon.com
