The seemingly-out-of-nowhere appearance of the young Kendall duo I Set My Friends on Fire has been recounted in New Times’ pages several times in recent months. But just to recap: teenagers Matt Mihana and Nabil Moo, formerly of a more by-the-numbers post-hardcore band, wanted to form a new project. They thought it would be funny to do a cover of Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat,” with Matt screaming the vocals and Nabil tweaking the beat on his computers and drum machine. It became a major, near-instant hit on the group’s MySpace page, garnering some million-plus plays to date.
But what’s more important these days is what happened since those heady days of summer 2007. On the strength of that cover, plus a few other original tracks, punk god Brett Gurewitz signed the act to a deal with his Epitaph Records. The fruit of that contract, the band’s debut album, You Can’t Spell Slaughter Without Laughter, was released this past October. Its sometimes-scattered mix of screaming, gurgling vocals and skittering electronics has met with mixed reactions from critics. Not that that has deterred the pair’s many, many, many young fans, who continue to leave Mihana and Moo loving Internet comments by the minute, and who have packed shows nationwide on this, the band’s first national tour. Can more than 101,000 MySpace friends be wrong?
After the jump, get show details, and watch the latest episode of the band's ongoing online TV series, The Chronicles of I Set My Friends on Fire.
I Set My Friends on Fire perform with Karate High School and Me, You, And Everyone We Know on Monday, December 1 at Drake’s, 13754 N. Kendall Dr., Miami. Show starts at 7 p.m. and is all ages. Call 305-244-8060.
