The Open Flames release their debut album ‘Same Time Next Year’. A potent combination of hard-lived experience and fresh creative energy, the album follows a wave of positive reviews sparked by 2024 teaser singles ‘Drop a Coin’ and ‘Eat Alone’.
‘Same Time Next Year’ is a feast of an album; from the Dungeons & Dragons groove of ‘Drop a Coin’ to the early-era Replacements-style rager ‘Lockdown,’ the band rides a dynamic wave from crescendo to crescendo. Singer/guitarist David Eastman crafts lyrical narratives that he and co-vocalist Paige Brubeck embody as characters—sometimes lonely, sometimes lush—brought to life by the band’s cinematic instrumentation. With powerful drums (courtesy of Harvey Danger’s Evan Sult), Brubeck and Len Bendel’s inventive basslines, and a full spectrum of distorted guitar tones, the album thrives on its raw, expressive energy. Eastman’s ragged voice and novelist’s eye channel elements of REM’s arena-rock reverb, Neil Young’s gnarly feedback, and X’s boisterous punk spirit, while also making room for intimate longing and psychedelic textures.
“This album is about growing into a band together,” says Sult. “It started as a rekindled friendship. Since our lives diverged in high school, David has been living all over the world, experiencing some seriously unreal conditions in both developing and wealthy countries. I’ve been on major and indie labels, leading a rock and art life across the U.S. with Paige. But David was the guy who got me playing music in the first place. When he sent me a song and I instantly knew what it needed, it felt like we could complete the circuit and finally collaborate. The title literally describes how we made it happen, jumping into a studio in London’s Camden Town whenever we had the chance.”
With Eastman and Bendel’s background in London rock outfit Say Yes Do Nothing and Sult’s history in ‘90s pop-cult band Harvey Danger and duo Sleepy Kitty with Brubeck, The Open Flames fuse attitude with experience in their rough-edged, literate alt-rock sound. ‘Same Time Next Year’ took shape through international listening sessions, intense rehearsals, and sometimes raucous hangouts in London, New York, and Paris. Now that the album has officially arrived, the band are poised to take things to the next level.
