Ten years after 2014’s Halcyon & Surrounding areas, The Library is On Fire have returned, releasing the singles Back Pocket and Hotel Jugoslavija featuring Mike Watt (Minutemen, Stooges), and announcing the release of a new album, Degeneration Elegies.

You can listen to Mike Watt interview Steve Five on The Watt From Pedro Show HERE.

The band has been in overdrive behind the scenes for the past year or so, working on Degeneration Elegies, a full-length album of completely new music, as well as playing select shows in Brooklyn after asking new bassist Vedran Mehinovic and keyboardist Chris Johnson to join the band as permanent members.

Upon moving to NYC in 2004, singer/guitarist Steve Five was looking for ideas. While writing songs in his Bushwick apartment & working at the Strand Bookstore, Five took the band’s name, La Bibliothèque Est en Feu, from a poem by antifascist & proto-surrealist war poet René Char, after weekly meetings over coffee with Television guitarist Tom Verlaine, who suggested the name.

The band would go on to release a number of albums, including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights produced by Guided by Voices producer Todd Tobias, kicking off a long friendship with GBV. Eventually former bassist Mark Shue would join Guided by Voices. The band released a number of now out-of-print albums, as well as 2014’s Halcyon & Surrounding Areas, before day jobs and relocations caused a hiatus.

About the Band

Genres: Alternative Rock / Shoegaze / Post-punk

Label: Independent 

Location: Brooklyn

Upon moving to NYC in 2004, singer/guitarist Steve Five was looking for ideas. While writing songs in his Bushwick apartment & working at the Strand Bookstore, Five took the band’s name, La Bibliothèque Est en Feu, from a poem by antifascist & proto-surrealist war poet René Char, after weekly meetings over coffee with Television guitarist Tom Verlaine, who suggested the name.

The band would go on to release a number of albums, including 2010’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights produced by Guided by Voices producer Todd Tobias, kicking off a long friendship with GBV. Eventually former bassist Mark Shue would join Guided by Voices. The band released a number of now out-of-print albums, as well as 2014’s Halcyon & Surrounding Areas, before day jobs and relocations caused an everlong hiatus.

After a decade of political activism, writing, & other projects, Five re-formed the band in 2023. 2023’s second single by The Library is On Fire, Hotel Jugoslavija, features the famed bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Dos, Firehose). 

Now accompanied by Vedran Mehinovic (bass) and Pete Sustarsic (drums), The Library is On Fire has returned with the announcement of a new album, The Degeneration Elegies, and a small number of curated shows in NYC.

Booking VedranBooking@gmail.com

Phone: 203-809-9429

Artist Inquiries: thelibraryisonfire@gmail.com

Steve Five: 718-864-5583