House On Fire

It’s been three long years since CTMF’s last studio album, 2023’s Failure Not Success, and now they’re back with a brand-new record! House On Fire finds them firing on all cylinders and dare we say it – they’ve never sounded finer!

The album features remixed versions of their covers of The Saints’ ‘Untitled’ and The Yardbirds’ ‘Shapes of Things’ (both previously only available on limited edition 7” singles), along with twelve original new recordings.

Also released on the same day is a four-song 7” EP (DAMGOOD645) featuring ‘Keep Mojave Weird’, taken from the album, plus three exclusive non-album tracks.

Here’s Billy with the stories behind three of the album’s key tracks…

‘The Magpie’s Flown’

“I was born in All Saints Hospital, Magpie Hall Road, Chatham, (the same hospital my grandfather, AB Seaman, who died in early 1981). The hospital was later closed up and demolished - which I personally find stupid. I hated school - we were just fodder for the Royal Dockyard, which was closed under Thatcher. The song is about the local landscape, institutions, and how war on nations and people seems to be the way humans do stuff.”

‘House on Fire’

“House on Fire was written by Julie. Style-wise Julie is a big fan of the rolling blues tunes of Mr. Airplane Man, a group The A-Lines, (Julie guitar) shared the same bill with on a number of occasions. Initially she meant the song to be a 'I love my man' type ditty but as it progressed it lurched into a revenge number.”

‘Keep Mojave Weird’

“’Keep Mojave Weird’ is a tune about the road trip I took with my family to the Southwest in 2025. It mentions three UFOs which I saw over Pioneertown, the lone phone box they've got in the desert, The Mojave Indians weaving Blue Flax, and Captain Beefheart’s liking of Bo Diddley, all nodding to The Seeds. (Sky Saxon once told me that Thee Headcoats played the way The Seeds should have.)”