| The Prize Fighter Inferno | |
| Origin: | Valley Cottage, New York, USA |
| Genre: | Folk rock, folktronica, electronica, experimental rock, acoustic |
| Years Active: | 1999 - present |
| Label: | Equal Vision |
| Current Members: | |
The Prize Fighter Inferno is an acoustic/electronica project of Claudio Sanchez, the lead singer and lead/rhythm guitarist for the band Coheed and Cambria, and his wife Chondra Echert. The first album, called My Brother's Blood Machine was released on October 31, 2006, through indie label Equal Vision Records. According to My Brother's Blood Machine liner notes, Claudio recorded the album over a period of seven years with "...random recording devices...".
Before the first album's release, four official songs were available for listening online:
These songs are available on the band's official MySpace page. The first single in the album is "Who Watches The Watchmen?"A 30-second clip of the song "78" was available on various websites advertising the release of the CD.
On September 25, 2009, A new song called "Gears" was introduced in the trailer of Claudio's comic series Kill Audio. When the fourth issue of Kill Audio was released, in February 2010, people who had ordered via MerchNow received a 7" vinyl EP titled "Beaver Records." This EP included "Gears" and the previously-unreleased song "Erizo Schultz" featuring Chondra on vocals. The vinyl credits both Claudio Sanchez and his wife Chondra Echert as "The Prize Fighter Inferno".
An EP was released for New York Comic Con 2012 titled "Half Measures" with tracks: Elm Street Lover Boy, Simple Fix, Pistol Pete Matty, and Half Measures. [1] On Record Store Day, the EP released as a Glow in the Dark vinyl, along with The Afterman: Descension Big Beige Demos in a coke-bottle clear vinyl, and Davenport Cabinet's EP in a blue vinyl.
On March 21, 2020, Claudio premiered a new song, "More Than Love", on his Instagram page. [2] In April 2020, he announced the song's official release on the Prize Fighter Inferno project’s Facebook page on April 3. Later that month, on the 24th, a cover of the Ben E. King song, “Stand by Me” was released to streaming services and digital retailers as well.
In an article from Spin Magazine on May 12, 2020, Sanchez stated, “I figured, if there’s any time to do this, it’s now. I’ll get a bunch of songs together, put a record out, I will feel good, and then get back to Coheed”. In the same article, two new songs were debuted from the project, “Death Rattle” and “Crazy for You”.[3]
On July 10, 2020, a 5-track EP titled "Stray Bullets" was released; the title track features Weerd Science. (Coheed and Cambria's drummer Josh Eppard's solo rap project)
The second Prize Fighter Inferno album, The City Introvert, released on April 23, 2021.
The music video for a new single, titled "Virtual Pioneers" was released on February 6, 2024, in anticipation of their first tour. A 2-track single released on February 7, 2024, featuring a reimagined version of "The Going Price For Home".
In 2004, a leaked recording of several acoustic demos made its way to several P2P networks. Among these were a few Prize Fighter Inferno demos, including "Blood Machine," "Run Like Hell," and "Your Love" (a cover of The Outfield).
On May 25, 2008, a song titled "From China With Love" was posted on the official MySpace along with a short blog entry explaining that Claudio Sanchez now wasn't sure that leaving it off My Brother's Blood Machine was the best idea, and that it was being released online to tide fans over until the next album, which the reader is assured is in the works.
On December 5, 2008, Claudio performed a solo acoustic show during Coheed and Cambria's Neverender shows in London, UK. The performance of was cancelled on December 2 due to a power cut, and was moved to December 5, with Claudio as the support to make up for the delay. Claudio played three cover songs, two Prize Fighter Inferno songs, and a new song he had written a few days before. Claudio gave information on the new song, titled "The Echomaker," saying that it was a demo for a project he and his wife were working on, a musical called "Rosie Barbara and the Family Massacre." The title of the song came from the book of the same name that Claudio's wife was reading at the time, which he felt fit with the subject of the story. The setlist of that night was as follows:
1. "Your Love" (The Outfield cover)
2. "Purple Haze" (Jimi Hendrix cover)
3. "Wayne Andrews, the old bee Keeper" (PFI song)
4. "The Echomaker" (new song)
5. "Who Watches the Watchmen?" (PFI song)
6. "Faithfully" (Journey cover)
On their 2011 Neverender: SSTB tour, Coheed and Cambria played "Who Watches The Watchmen?" as part of their acoustic set.The first ever Prize Fighter Inferno tour was announced on July 18, 2023, with 11 dates starting February 17th, 2024. Two additional shows were added; a new first-ever show on Friday, February 16th in Washington DC[4] & another Detroit show on February 28, 2024.[5]
The first ever Prize Fighter Inferno tour was announced on July 18, 2023, with 11 dates starting February 17th, 2024. Two additional shows were added; a new first-ever show on Friday, February 16th in Washington DC[6] & another Detroit show on February 28, 2024.[7]
| Year | Title | Image | Link | Director | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | "Who Watches the Watchmen?" | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGilQMDFSA | - | My Brother's Blood Machine | ||
| 2021 | "Rock Bottom" | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DqzO06bkD4 | Jenny He | The City Introvert | ||
| 2024 | "Virtual Pioneers" | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lV2H1l3MgQ | Ernie Falconer | Virtual Pioneers - Single |
See main article: The Amory Wars.
Like the albums of Coheed and Cambria, this album is a concept album that tells a story. It contains many of the same recurring themes as the Coheed and Cambria story, such as love, the importance of children, and death. The album is being told from the point of view of a character known as "The Prise Fighter Inferno" a.k.a. Jesse from the Coheed and Cambria concept. He is also featured in The Amory Wars, Sanchez's comic books about the Coheed and Cambria story.
The name of the album, My Brother's Blood Machine, is a phrase that appears in Coheed and Cambria's . This story is set in the past of the universe from the Amory Wars. In an interview with rock-sound.net in 2005, Claudio Sanchez has said that the two stories "do connect, but not in the most obvious way."
Long-arm and Butchie Bleam brothers brought together by physical distortion and social seclusion are about to find themselves in the running for the most unusual job in the world.....DEATH! Listen to the story unfold as we follow these two misunderstood yet maniacal minstrels of macabre in a neverending race for ultimate power. Listen to the disturbing details as the songs takes you through the hell that is the Blood Machine. This is a story being told in song......this is hell being unleashed through love and sound...... I am the hitchhiker doomed to tell the tale of Margretville, I am your Guide, I am the Prise Fighter Inferno.
In an interview posted by MTV News on September 29, 2006, Claudio went into much greater detail about the plot:
"Well, this story actually acts as a prequel to the Amory Wars," the center of the Coheed and Cambria mythology, Sanchez explains. The Inferno character, who appears in the Coheed concept as a man named Jesse, "dies in the Good Apollo: Volume One, and is resurrected on present-day Earth. So he leaves the solar system that the story takes place in, and gets resurrected in the present day. But before he can tell the story of the Amory Wars, he needs to tell the story of the Blood Machine.
"The Blood Machine revolves around three families, one being the Bleam family, who are our horrific sort of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' family," he continued. "There's the McCloud family — where we have our main character, Cecilia — and the Early family. And [Cecilia's] love interest is the son of that family, Johnny. And there are so many subplots. One, for example, talks about how Cecilia's father happens to molest her, and eventually she can't take it anymore and tries to convince Johnny to leave with her. She steals her two brothers, who happen to be twins, and Johnny decides not to go. So she ends up running away with the twins into the woods, where she meets the Bleam family."
Sanchez said that there are two Bleam brothers — Long-Arm and Butchie — who are horrific monsters. "Their mother happens to be crazy, and she ends up telling these two kids that 'God has come to me with a higher calling for you — you need to be the new Death,' and she tells them that they have to go out and collect souls for God," he explained. "And so, out of their mind, they're like, 'OK, so when a body dies, how do we get the soul out of it?' They construct this Blood Machine, which basically tears a body to shreds, and they think that releases the soul."[9]
Sanchez said there are numerous subplots that will unfold as well, including the elaborate background of the Bleam kith: The family's patriarch, a meth addict, dismembers his wife when he catches her pinching from his stash, and her death sends the Bleam boys on a downward spiral toward complete madness.