World / Inferno Friendship Society

The World/Inferno Friendship Society can best be described as a gang rather than an actual band. The group is a rotating cabaret of punk/ska/gospel featuring horns, piano, punk rock guitar, a number of percussionists, and a mayhem-inducing live presence. The Brooklyn, NY, collective started in the late '90s and has seen over 30 members move through their ranks. Usually you can expect to see about nine or ten members on-stage when they perform. The World/Inferno Friendship Society released their debut CD, The True Story of the Bridgewater Astral League, on the New Jersey-based indie Gern Blandsten in 1997. They followed that with The East Coast Super Sound Punk of Today! (which featured the typically arch track "All of California and Everyone Who Lives There Stinks") and April 2002's Just the Best Party (featuring another WIFS classic, "I Wouldn't Want to Live in a World Without Grudges"). The live album Hallowmas Live at Northsix appeared in August 2003. Three years later, the group returned with the EP Speak of Brave Men in January and the full-length Red-Eyed Soul that July, the latter marking their debut on Chunksaah.