I Would Set Myself On Fire For You was an experimental screamo band out of Atlanta, Georgia. They formed in 2001 and broke up in 2007 after releasing 2 full-lengths, both on Stickfigure Records. They were very interesting both live and on recordings as they utilized violins, cello, violia, and synths in a similar fashion to the stylings of bands like Vowel, Respire and We Came Out Like Tigers, to mention a few. IWSMOFFY consisted of vocalist/violin/viola/cello player Lindsey Leigh Harbour, vocalist/guitarist/synth player Tyler Walters, vocalist/guitarist Stephen Matthew Newhouse, bassist Justin Karl Lane and drummer Paul Hobson. Lindsey is currently in the gothic-type act Women's Work.
The screamo scene had recently lost a lot of bands around the late 90s and early 2000s - Jerome's Dream, Saetia, I Hate Myself to name a few - due to breakups. The scene needed some fresh blood and IWSMOFFY responded - though they always seemed happy to remain a cult band as more bands would come around the same time such as Circle Takes the Square, and even years later with the introduction of the newer wave of post-hardcore bands including La Dispute, Touché Amoré and Defeater.
The band had the uncommon trait of not performing live with vocal microphones, instead opting to shriek, shout and scream at the top of their lungs for the bulk of their performances (everyone in the band had vocal duties). In this case, i'm not going to say that this way of performing is unique to them, as bands such as Jeromes Dream, and later on I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism In Your Yearbook and Flowers Taped to Pens would (sometimes) perform in that way, without mics in some capacity.
Both of their releases - self-titled and Believes in Patterns, are great examples of sometimes math rock and avant-garde music influenced hardcore music, clearly with a ton of passion with every scream they belt out and every odd chord they strum. They are an extremely fascinating band to me and I would've loved to see them, but the next best thing we have is Youtube footage, I guess.
I Would Set Myself on Fire For You is for fans of, really anything with odd time signatures and lots of screaming and noise! Jeromes Dream, The Brave Little Abacus, I Hate Myself, Joshua Fit For Battle, Saetia, City of Caterpillar and Circle Takes the Square are some bands that fans of this might also like.
Below are some links to their music.
Bandcamp - Through Stickfigure Records
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