Lungfish

Now operating in its 20th year, Lungfish is a progressive punk band based in Baltimore, Maryland. The band rose from the ashes of Reptile House, which featured Daniel Higgs, and later on Asa Osborne. All of their music has been released by the Washington, D.C. indie label Dischord except for their first LP, Necklace of Heads which was released by Simple Machines (it was later added to the CD release of Talking Songs for Walking by Dischord). Lungfish remains one of the most intense, strange, and dedicated bands in the music world, constantly repeating similar ideas over and over. They have developed an extremely loyal cult following across the nation and the globe with their sporadic, yet powerful live shows and enigmatic presence in the music world. Fans have been known to travel hundreds of miles to catch them in concert, which are usually held in fairly small venues and bars, and live visual and audio recordings are highly sought-after. This helps explain not only why they are the sole band not from the D.C. area to be put out by Dischord, but perhaps also why they were selected by their musical peers to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival on two separate occasions (once by Tortoise, and once by Modest Mouse).


Their line-up as of 2005 consisted of Daniel Higgs (vocals), Asa Osborne (guitar, also of Tear Jerks), Sean Meadows (bass, also widely known for June of 44), and Mitchell Feldstein (drums). Previous bass players are John Chriest and Nathan Bell. They have been inactive since late 2005, with Daniel being the only member heard from on a consisent basis. He's kept busy as a solo musician and visual artist, carving a distinct niche for himself outside of the world of Lungfish (former member Nathan Bell is currently involved in a project called Human Bell with Arbouretum's Dave Heumann; in addition, Mitchell Feldstein played drums on several tracks for Arbouretum's Rites of Uncovering full-length). Lungfish has vanished from existence only to return again on more than one occasion (which allowed for the formation of Daniel and Asa's project The Pupils), and their future is still described as unknown.


Lungfish records feature compelling guitar-based repetitions with Daniel Higgs' prophetic and cryptic lyrics. Among their most prominent early works are the albums Talking Songs for Walking and Rainbows from Atoms, which feature the band's original bassist. More recent works include The Unanimous Hour, Necrophones, Love is Love, and Feral Hymns. Higgs, a poet in his own right, has released several hard-to-find books of poetry including The Doomsday Bonnet (out-of-print). You can also catch a little bit of his work in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, which can be found in most bookstores.


Despite the band's current inactive state, Dischord has still put out several remastered editions of out-of-print Lungfish records, the most recent being 1993's effort Rainbows from Atoms (reissued January 2008). These and any other Lungfish albums (including related solo releases) are available from Dischord.com.