Local New Act

The Douglas Fir

Beyond the hype

The Douglas Fir have a flair for the cinematic. In fact, it may have been the trio's fondness for using vintage movie stills to create some of the most fetching gig fliers around town that initially got them noticed. But it's the Cambridge band's captivating -- and, in this era, fabulously anachronistic -- update on atmospheric, UK-style dream-pop that continues to make believers of the curious.

Born in 1997 in the very un-UK environs of an Allston basement, this year's local winner for Best New Act got off to a humble yet promising start: a cassette tape of a few demos written by singer-guitarist Jay Walsh that betrayed an infatuation with the shimmering allure of the Church and the tragic poetry of the Smiths, but also showcased a highly literate, quixotic songwriter whose own arresting pop aesthetic was already fully formed. This despite the fact that the band hadn't even played its first gig yet (that would come months later, on a rainy Sunday night at T.T. the Bear's Place).

On each of their two subsequent seven-inch singles (charmingly pressed on collector-geek green and blue vinyl and released on the band's own Dark Years Records label), the Douglas Fir -- which also includes bassist Patrick Cooley and drummer John Michael -- summon sublime guitar-and-cello (!)-soaked vistas of grace and yearning while Walsh sings of "azure skies and firmament" ("Unwelcome") and sipping "absinthe with Baudelaire and Manet" ("My Favorite Thing") with refined, Continental grandeur. All of which might sound merely affected if it weren't also so affecting.

-- Jonathan Perry