Members of the band, Care Bears on Fire— Sophie (guitar/vocals), Izzy (drums) and Lulu (bass)— were a mere glimmer in their mother’s eyes in the late 70s and 80s. I should know; I’m the drummer’s mother. Nevertheless, the band’s mature sound has been described by some, like The San Francisco Chronicle, as early American punk “CBGB circa 1975.”

You might have been able to predict it had you known Sophie and Izzy in kindergarten. While the other kids were grooving to Raffi and crooning Baby Belgua, the girls were Blitzrieg-bopping to the Ramones.

At the beginning of 4th grade, Sophie and Izzy started playing music after school with some friends. Despite the fact they spent most of their time eating candy, hiding each other’s shoes and arguing about whether or not to cover the Ramone’s “I Wanna Be Sedated” (they did), by the end of 4th grade they, had enough songs for a set, and were invited to play a show at a local pizza parlor.

In 5th grade with their friend Lucio on bass, the ensemble started calling themselves Care Bears on Fire and writing their own songs. The sound was punk meets garage rock, but straight out of a Brooklyn basement. Or as the kids describe it, “pop-punk-garage-on fire.”

As part of the burgeoning kidcore scene in Brooklyn, Care Bears on Fire began playing all-ages shows in bars and clubs in Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as at street fairs, block parties and Purim festivals. In the summer of 2006, CBOF recorded their first EP, Confuse Me, with the teen-run, local label, Beautiful Records.

In 2007, the band released their debut LP album I Stole Your Animal (Daisy Explosion Records, 2007), produced by Joel Hamilton (Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Frank Black). In its review SPIN said, “With their blase (accent over e) vocals and two chord vamps, this trio are old-school classicists dressed up in itty bitty Chuck Taylors. Grumpy Bear might not be happy, but our ears are.”

Metromix.com said the songs on I Stole Your Animal “seamlessly meld ‘70s rock, old-school punk and bits of the Pixies. Think CBGBs, not Radio Disney.” The Miami New Times called Care Bears on Fire the “wiseass kid siblings of Bad Brains.”

What is apparent across the board is that CBOF’s authentic punk spirit and music capture the authentic, non-corporate-packaged experience of being a kid in 2008.
“Our songs are about everything from the craziness of middle school to our thoughts about the world” says Izzy. “But besides all that, the songs are just a lot of fun to dance to.”

The reality of coming of age in today’s culture is apparent in “Five Minute Boyfriend” a tongue-in-cheek look at what passes for intimacy in middle school, and “Met You Myspace,” a quirky cautionary tale about the dangers of online intimacy. Most notably, the band’s first single “Everybody Else,” noted as a “standout track” in Billboard’s Top Ten Critics’ Choice poll, has become an anti-nominal anthem on college and indie radio play lists across the country and in Japan. You can also look for it in Converse’s award-winning Three Chords ad. That’s Sophie on the acoustic guitar.

In the last year, the kids’ real lives have gotten increasingly busy. In addition to juggling school and homework, afterschool activities, such as dance and music lessons, and local gigs, the band has appeared at the indie-rock fest SXSW in Austin, Texas, as well on the Cartoon Network, NPR radio, Fearless TV and the front page of USA Today.

“You have to be prepared to put the time in,” Sophie says. “But it’s not like it’s work work, it’s fun work.”

The most fun work the kids have recently had was being invited to play the opening of the John Varvatos store, formerly the seminal rock club CBGB’s. Despite the fact the band was never able to play in the historic venue, because Varvatos retained the original stage, Care Bears on Fire got the experience of playing on the same stage heroes like Sonic Youth, Talking Heads and Patti Smith once rocked. If that wasn’t enough, meeting Joan Jett and seeing Slash up close and personal was, the girls say in unison, “huge.”

A new bass player, Lulu, has recently joined the band, which exhibits an ever-evolving sound. That said, don’t look for CBOF’s joyfully anti-authoritarian spirit to fade.

Care Bears on Fire

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