In 2008, shortly after returning to Birmingham from college in NY, Lee Bains fell in with the Dexateens, a Tuscaloosa institution whose raggedy union of cock-eyed rebel pride and forward-thinking fury proved to be the perfect apprenticeship for a confused Southern boy. After Bains had played with the band for a couple or three years, a couple or three hundred shows, the Dexateens came to a reluctant end. Bains found himself off the road, back in Birmingham, without a band. He also found himself with a passel of powerful songs. Casting his nets in central Alabama’s rock’n’roll clubs, Bains assembled the Glory Fires. There is a Bomb in Gilead is the band’s debut album.
Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires have skipped right over the formative section of their career and stepped with both feet right into their potential. There is a Bomb in Gilead is an ass-kicking, heart-pumping, soul-reflecting chunk of rock n' roll goodness that another ten years on the road couldn't make any more honest or cohesive. This album is a statement of purpose. - FARCE THE MUSIC
It won’t be easy finding a recent set transmitting more passion or generating more soul-burnin’ BTU’s than the debut disc of this Birmingham-based four-piece. - ROOTS MUSIC REPORT
On their new full-length, There Is a Bomb in Gilead, Bains and his quartet explore a brand-new South: “Everything You Took” mentions a Walker Percy novel and a Ramones T-shirt, while “Magic City Stomp” is garage-rock that quotes the Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Bains has brains and humor, and the band can really stomp. - Edd Hurt / NASHVILLE SCENE
There are a few songs that had – had – to have been recorded at midnight by their sound and vibe (the weary goodbye of “Everything You Took”; the snapping, biting “Ain’t No Stranger”). And if the stripped-to-the-bone title track wasn’t laid down on a Sunday morning, well, I don’t want to know about it. People spend careers (and a lot of production bucks) trying to sound this soulful. This is a debut album? Holy ol’ Christ … Hang on, world: here come Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires. - Brian Robbins / JAMBANDS
A glorious ruckus. - UNCUT
There are few artists who nail their debut albums. Lee Bains & the Glory Fires happen to be one of the few. The album is a collection of strong tunes that can each stand alone but when listened to as a whole are really powerful. The more I listen to it the better it sounds as I discover something different with each spin. - Chris Martin / EXAMINER
The band’s combination of rock, punk, soul and country is typical of the sound that comes out of the Quad Cities, an area in North Alabama rich with musical talent going back to the 1960′s. - DEAD JOURNALIST
Choogle like the second coming of Creedence. - ROLLING STONE