Music Snitch

I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about a Tuesday!  Typically, on new album Tuesdays, I see the list of albums being released and there is one, maybe two that catch my interest.  So for me, this Tuesday, September 22nd, is as rare as an obese chihuahua with a crooked tail and one testicle (oh, Lee Lee Cas Cas). As if Blood Memory wasn’t enough…

New Releases: September 22nd
– Forget The Night Ahead from The Twilight Sad
– Monsters Of Folk from Monsters Of Folk
– Daisy from Brand New
– White Water, White Bloom from Sea Wolf
– Blood Memory from Birdmonster
– New Leaves from Owen

I was extremely stoked, near giddy, to learn that one of my favorite bands, Birdmonster, is releasing a new EP this month…although it is really like a mini LP since there are eight tracks. The new EP, “Blood Memory”, was produced by Tom Schick (From The Mountain To The Sea) at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco and will be available exclusively online on September 22nd via Fader Label.

Here is what the band had to say about the forthcoming, “Blood Memory” EP:

Choosing songs for an album is a lot like what I imagine picking favorites amongst your children to be. That is to say: not easy. So instead of picking them yourself, you try to let the songs decide…you try to get out of your own way. And if you can do that, you might find the album congealing all on its own, from start to finish, without needing any help from you. And sometimes what takes shape isn’t exactly what you intended, but still something that needs its saying.

These were some of the thoughts ambling through our minds when sifting through the 25 songs that would eventually become the 12 comprising our second album, “From The Mountain To The Sea”. There were a few causalities.

A year later while starting work on a new batch of ideas, we thought we’d revisit those sessions and see if there was anything there…anything that had miraculously congealed, on its own, in our absence. What we found amid the sketches and b-sides was a group of 8 tracks of a different nature altogether. It was something darker, something more perilous, more narrative, more conceptual than any of the material we’d thus far released. We found a world desperate for gunfights, confrontations with The Man On High, journeys through ice by way of the desert; a world where the ancient songs flow off your tongue sure as instinct, like memories your ancestors left flowing in your blood. If its predecessor was a stab at something concise and singular, this was a world of extremities; one where loud guitars eventually give way to desperate banjos, settling to a bed of acoustics and messy piano lines. I was left wondering, Could I have intended this all from the start?

Take a listen to “Yuma”, the first single from Birdmonster’s forthcoming EP:

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Download: Yuma (Right click on link and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox)

Birdmonster – Website

Here are some of my most memorable music related experiences from 2008…in no particular order.

Listening to and falling in love with, Frightened Rabbit. The Midnight Organ Fight is a truly amazing album from start to finish. (Sings The Greys is a pretty special album too)

Birdmonster! No Midnight has become one of my staples, I don’t feel right without a little Birdmonster in my day. “From the Mountain to The Sea” is a terrific album as well. Oh, and seeing them live at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC was unforgettable.

Locksley opening up for NeedToBreathe at The Mercury Lounge.

The Golden EP from Bear Hands.

The mass appeal of the Vocoder and/or Talk Box. It’s hysterical how many top ten songs and Hot Shot Debuts were spawned from a device that basically hides peoples’ lack of talent. I wonder what Peter Frampton and the Zapp Band think about this new craze? Just goes to show you how far the music industry and popular music has fallen.

Seeing the Von Bondies play a show in Seattle.

State Radio’s album Year Of The Crow playing in my iPod while snowboarding down a mountain.

Paper Rival’s song Alabama.

The Airborne Toxic Event at The Mercury Lounge in NYC.

The Fillmore and Terminal 5 in NYC…got to see some great shows at these venues like, Flogging Molly, Hotel Café Tour and Wolf Parade

Bon Iver, The Muslims, Division Day, Fleet Foxes, Dr. Dog, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Colour Revolt, Foals, The Deadly Syndrome, Passion Pit, South, Pela, MGMT, The Helio Sequence, Vampire Weekend, Cut Off Your Hands, Miniatures Tigers…(Just to name a few artists/bands I enjoyed this year)

On my latest excursion it became rather apparent that if it were not for two specific albums, my travels would be lack luster. These two albums have resided in my music collection for quite some time now but the songs seem to never lose their appeal.