murder by death

Four-piece Bloomington, Indiana quartet Murder by Death released the three-song digital EP Fuego! last week. Formed in 2000 at Indiana University and discovered by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickley, the band has been labeled everything from Western alt-country to Americana noir. True to their namesake (Neil Simon's 1976 murder-mystery comedy), the band has created concept albums about zombies (Like the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing), the Devil (Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?) and Dante's Divine Comedy (In Bocca Al Lupo).

The Fuego! EP is the precursor to their fourth full-length album, The Red of Tooth and Claw, to be released in March. Murder by Death is characterized by their extensive use of string instruments, particularly Sarah Balliet on the cello, alternating with punky guitars. "Fuego!" perfectly captures it all-lust, sin and liquor-aided by lead singer Adam Turla's sittin'-in-a-bar-drinkin'-whiskey-and-smokin' vocals. The band changes pace with "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)," an extended instrumental tribute to the film composer. The EP concludes with the Nancy Sinatra-revised, Kill Bill-immortalized "My Baby Shot Me Down." Turla sings "Bang, bang, she shot me down" against twangy guitars with a perfect, ominous intensity that would make Johnny Cash proud.

It may be presumptuous, though accurate, to say that Murder by Death records exclusively in minor keys. But they have an image to keep up-impending disaster and fire and brimstone and all that-and it wouldn't be appropriate to sing about picking up Satan hitchhiking in the Mexico desert in a major key. Aptly called a "teaser EP," Fuego! mesmerizes the listener with the undertones of some greater brooding-maybe vampires this time? As Adam Turla puts it, watch out for a "Homer's Odyssey of revenge, only without the honorable character at the center."