Ryan's Smashing Life

Cameron Keiber - Nurser

2025-03-11T05:23:00.004-04:00

Just Perfect - Boston songwriter Cameron Keiber (Midriff Records) this week shares a new 11-song album, Nurser (March 14) a collection of beautiful melancholia you should get your hands on. These songs of relatable criticism and personal truths drop in a time of turmoil and this album could be the perfect escape.

Nurser is a nature progression for the artist - a continuation of Keiber’s prior catalog. The songs dish whimsically on the memories of childhood, the disillusionment with establishment and religion and disappointment in icons and traditions. Keiber's jarring narration is an instrument upon itself - a trademark he has carried throughout his career.

As a founding member of Northeast live stage legends The Beatings, a punchy, noise pop band celebrated internationally, sharing stages over the years with The National, The Hold Steady, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, among many others. That dark sound emblematic of The Beatings was made more personal on Keiber's solo efforts. And until this record, those records were released under the dark pseudonym Eldridge Rodriguez – a stage name Keiber has stepped away from for this first release baring his own name.

Cameron Keiber has been operating Midriff Records with his brother Clayton out of Boston and Brooklyn for the last 25 years. The label acting, through that time, as a springboard for the musical careers of many.

Nurser features Keiber in nearly every capacity; vocals, guitar, bass, harmonica, bow, theremin, keyboards, piano, percussion, noise, and programming. Additional guitar and programming were provided by Beatings bandmate David Grabowski at Bluestone Studio with additional piano by Mel Lederman. Lederman, a fellow Midriff artist, has appeared on Keiber's prior albums as well. Produced and recorded by Keiber and Grabowski, Nurser was mastered by Jeff Lipton and Costanza Tinti at Peerless in Newton. This is inspired stuff I will never tire of.

Nurser is highly recommended music for the fans of Pavement, David Berman, Neil Young and John Cale.

CAMERON KEIBER - NURSER
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Magic Man returns to Boston with his Film in hand

2024-10-23T07:15:00.002-04:00

GOING OUT - David Messier is a very serious man about his music. The native Bostonian returns this week to debut his most ambitious film and music creation to date on Thursday. Presenting under the creative moniker David Starbuckle, the first Boston showing of a wild and inspiring new film/visual album, “Bang! It’s David Starbuckle: The Movie,” is happening Thursday, October 24th, at The Coolidge Corner Theater (located at 290 Harvard St, Brookline, MA at 7:30pm. It's a film about life and the making of an album. The record, Bang! It's David Starbuckle, is a really clean full sounding record capable of opening eyes and soothing wild beasts. The film looks to turn some of these sounds on their head. I for one, cannot wait! Tickets for tomorrow's show are available online.

Is ambitious a strong enough word? This is a gonzo project and my hat is sincerely off to the talented Mr. Messier. He tackles humor, culture via the film medium and has one heck of a band bringing that music to life. The album features a number of long time collaborators. Dave Madden served as musical director, string arranger, keys, background vocals and bass, Scott Clark on guitar and background vocals, Matt Giles on guitar, Chris “Spanky” Alexander on bass, Eldridge Goins on drums and background vocals, Warren Hood on fiddle, John Mills on saxophone, Kevin Flatt on trumpet and flugelhorn, Mike Mordecai on trombone, Noelle Hampton, BettySoo, and Ange Kogutz on background vocals, Leigh Wallenhaupt and Abi Shiman on violin, Luis Bellorin on viola and Rylie Harrodon on cello.

Who the heck is this David Messier guy anyway? So glad you asked. David is a longtime friend and kindred spirit. The multi-instrumentalist and songwriter is the former frontman of Boston's Papermoon, and having relocated to Austin - he's become an influential studio owner and a pillar of the music community in ATX. songwriter, artist and owner of Same Sky Productions, Inc., a 3,000 sq ft recording studio in Austin, TX. David is a studio hound and he's helped a lot of people in the industry along the way. He surrounds himself with good people and he's successful; having held leadership positions in the Recording Academy (GRAMMYS) as a Governor and President of the Texas Chapter and as a national Trustee. In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, Messier spearheaded the national charge to create actionable guidelines for recording studios to open and record safely. These guidelines were adopted and shared by the Recording Academy, and have been applauded by Pitchfork and Billboard Magazine.

After nearly a decade of work in the industry and producing music for others, Messier started releasing solo albums in 2016 with his debut, “Waiting for Eldridge” on Fable Records to critical acclaim.

Messier has been recognized with numerous accolades for his musical accomplishments and contributions to the local industry. Austin Mayor Steve Adler declared June 8, 2017 as “David Messier Day,” and he was awarded with the prestigious “Austin Under 40 Award” in the “Arts and Entertainment” category in 2018. That same year Messier released his follow up solo album, “Time Bomb,” to national recognition. With "It's Alive," an earlier music video, demonstrated his ability to pair great tunes with comedic value videos. He seems to have turned things up 5 Fold with Bang! being his most realized vision of work to date!

David is in Boston currently and will be there to greet attendees and discuss the film, album and music videos on Thursday.

DAVID STARBUCKLE
Tickets / Linkages / David Messier

it's New Wings for Mynabirds!

2024-08-16T10:43:00.008-04:00

Today the sun is shining and I can recognize the good in each person's heart. You have to get up and sing when when one of our favorites artists reappear. Mynabirds, the creative outlet used by songwriter Laura Burhenn, has hit all the right notes for me - straight from the very beginning. Today's spotlight celebrates her butterfly wings being used once again!

Mynabirds will "play living rooms, community spaces, small bars/venues, back yards, farm fields, or any special intimate spot (with power) we can commune together in this October and November." Burhenn made the announcement via socials this week. I'm hoping dates are secured and more added.

Memories - I was just discovering tunes in the Washington D.C. music community when Burhenn's first act: Georgie James roared up, seemingly out of nowhere, releasing a dynamo of an indie pop record; Places, on Saddle Creek in 2007. Melodic and punchy, riffy and sweet.. This was music blog candy. This was a a one-and-done for Georgie James; with Burhenn (classically trained) and co-creator John Davis (punk rock) parted ways thereafter with Burhenn entering the studio with producer/musician Richard Swift and her new sound was born - as Mynabirds.

Saddle Creek would play home to 4 Mynabird album releases but what I remember most were the live shows for those album tours. At the time I was listening to typically much more jangly, hard indie rock - and Mynabirds was melodic, atmospheric, moving and beautiful. Thus Burhenn became one of the musical pins on my 'listening map' and > fast-forward: it's magic that she's making every attempt to reconnect with her audience and we should all encourage this type of behavior.

MYNABIRDS Laura Burhenn · What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood

"It took me 5 years of silence to remember why I sing: music is my medicine, our medicine. In this fraught and fragile time. "I can think of nothing better than coming together in community and letting the music hold us."

Burhenn and Mynabirds in Austin at SXSW 2010.

Photo by 5342 Studies for rslblog.com

LIVE DATES (Venues TBA)

Sept 28 : Santa Monica / W Los Angeles CA

Oct 02 : Ojai / Santa Barbara CA

Oct 08 : Mendocino / Albion CA

Oct 11 : Seattle WA Oct

12 : Portland OR

Oct 14 : Boise ID

Oct 15 : Salt Lake City UT

Oct 17 : Denver / Boulder CO

Oct 19 : Omaha NE

Oct 23 : Minneapolis MN

Oct 26 : Detroit MI

Oct 28 : Buffalo / Rochester NY

Oct 31 : Catskill / New Platz NY

Nov 01 : Brooklyn / Manhattan NYC

MYNABIRDS
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Healing Music ~ Sarah Blacker

2023-02-03T17:26:00.011-05:00

There's really nothing that New England songwriter Sarah Blacker cannot do. With more than an album’s worth of new material, the award-winning multi-instrumentalist is back in a big way in 2023, armed with new songs, plans to record and will be performing them for live audiences. Get ready for three minutes of realization! Sarah's "Beautiful Murderer" is a playful but real look at cause, effect and change. This home studio recording is a taste of what is to come and a refreshing promise of that which is to come.

Sarah is a healer. Her titles, technically, are Psychotherapist and Board-Certified Music Therapist; roles which see her helping those suffering lifelong trauma and substance abuse - reaching them through music and helping them lead healthier and happier lives. And there were her own challenges, a car wreck meant some healing of the healer. "It was, a total car wreck," she recalls. The path out has been driven by music. Gorgeous ascending songs which she is ready to share with the world. "I have been writing lots with plans to do some studio recording this year, have joined with original members of jamband Percy Hill in the Ammonium Maze, and have been playing lots with my trio!"

Saturday Feb 4, 2023

Sarah Blacker Band
at Club Passim
47 Palmer St
Cambridge, MA
7pm doors / 8pm show

Name 'Female Performer of the Year' in the New England Music Awards, a Boston-Music Award nominee and CBS Boston 'Artist to Watch', Blacker has also supported Jefferson Starship, America, Paula Cole, Richard Thompson, Zack Deputy, and Sara Bareilles to name just a few.

SARAH BLACKER
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2023 is the Perfect Time for Bang Camaro to return with new music!

2023-01-23T15:22:00.008-05:00

In the days before the pandemic end times, back through the seemingly never-ending, greed-fueled US political decay, we travel back mentally to a time of light filled with hope and entertainment most wild. It is now 2023 and we find ourselves mugged by our own fears, crippled by virus and weakened by wars. We travel back to the mid-2000s when Boston was a place where rock music was made and exported throughout the world. And in these brighter times, there were nights that never seemed to end and glorious, rock-filled epiphanies which ran through our ears like blood rushing off to some distant limb. We were going to live forever! The knights of this shining realm were a band of far-flung brothers who sought to create and spread joy. This is the story of Bang Camaro and - praise be, they have returned to us - today, in our greatest hour of need... It is 2023 and they have returned.

III, the new album from gang vocal rockers Bang Camaro will see the light of day in 2023.

About the Video: Directed by Bill Darmon and Rob McLain, "We Know You Know" will appear on the album 'BANG CAMARO: III'. Recorded and mixed by Mike Quinn and mastered by Pat DiCenso, the track features Mike Piehl (drums), Dave Riley (bass guitar and synth), Bryn Bennett and Alejandro Necochea (guitars). Bang Camaro is all about the gang vocals and this track is no different, featuring the above forementioned as well as appearances from John Brookhouse, Morgan Brown, Melissa Gibbs, Nick Given, Jared Marsh, Tad McKitterick, Kate Murdoch, Mike Nastri, Michelle Paulhus, Marc Pinansky, Mike Soltoff, Steve Trombley, and Rodrigo van Stoli - a virtual who's who of northeast rock talent. Who's getting excited? I'm getting excited.

Cue the Press Release: With face-melting guitar solos and a wall of gang vocals, Bang Camaro blasted onto the Boston music scene in 2005 as a reaction to the early aughts nostalgia for post-punk / new wave music. If bands like The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol were going to wax nostalgic about bands like Joy Division, Bang Camaro was spawned to fill the void left by groups like Def Leppard and Skid Row. Quickly boosted by their inimitable performances - complete with approximately 20 lead vocalists to bring their signature sound to life without backing tracks, leading to one apt description of their sound as “Headbangers Ball meets The Polyphonic Spree” - and inclusion in the widely popular rhythm games Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Bang Camaro hit the road. They toured the US and Canada for five straight years, appearing at festivals such as Lollapalooza and Summerfest. The relentless touring, coupled with the releases of their debut self-titled album in 2007 and 2009’s follow-up, Bang Camaro II, and appearances on national television shows like Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and MTV Spring Break, continued to attract fans, including stars Jimmy Fallon (who joined them on stage for a legendary performance at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom) and James Gunn."

BANG CAMARO
Web / Fb / Tw / Insta / Spotify

Albums of the Year 2022

2022-12-31T14:37:00.008-05:00

As the world crawls out and back under the burdens of Covid and War, how will you choose to recall 2022? Living and working largely alone in 2022, Song was my constant companion. I delved more deeply into the worlds of Indie Rock, Japanese Jazz and Brazilian Soul. And, of course, all those new records which keep calendar-turning worthwhile. This was a year shaped by incredible loss and moments of white hot triumph. Here is a music playlist to enjoy. These new albums helped fill the void and helped me shape my world in 2022.

Record of the Year 2022 - A

Austin's Spoon walked into the world early this year - a strong Best of candidate out of the gates. Riding high tailwinds from 2017's remarkable scorcher "Hot Thoughts" and 2014's near-perfect "They Want My Soul" this was Spoon's crown to lose - and they never did. Britt Daniels was the plaintive 22nd Century voice of my 2022 spirit guide. And the jangly guitar and irregular song structures of these pop rock juggernauts never saw defeat. There's something to be said for the team viewed as the best and defy every other squad's best shots all year. If you are long-term Spoon fan then you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're not and you have an open mind "Lucifer On The Sofa" is an excellent entry point into a tremendous band's career. I recommend the last three records to start. Give yourself that compass and locate your way out of your forest. {albums available + Streaming}

Record of the Year 2022 - B

2022 was the year in which Kevin Morby ceased to be be just a poet and playful storyteller and crossed over into greatness. Anyone who has enjoyed Kevin's songs will tell you they have all enjoyed getting lost in his landscapes but the pieces of those worlds were never brought together so completely and sharply as they were with "This is A Photograph." Kevin Morby plays with words and is a hell of song constructer but on this effort he has sown Beck-level word imagery throughout his expansive audio backdrop. This is the perfect record to hit repeat and walk through the woods with. The record unfolds upon itself more and more with each listen and despite a ridiculous set of creative challenges from it's peers - Kevin Morby's This Is A Photograph found it's way at the very top of the pile for me in 2022. An excellent, well-earned Best of 2022 Selection! {albums available + Streaming}

New England Album of the Year

There is a before-you-have-discovered Ali McGuirk status you need to rid yourselves of and I want to help some of our global readers with. Ali and I have some mutual friends and I recall a time a few years back when I was able to get a good seat at her show. From that point on I was mesmerized by her live performance. Her voice has an impossible richness and texture and she is so casually graceful when performing she sort of glows on stage. (I kid you not.) With her new Must-Have album, "Til It's Gone," McGuirk has stood up and seized her worthy place amongst the best creators of this young decade - as her song writing and the characters living in her songs now match or exceed that magical voice. I have spent a lot of quality time with this record and it's the best thing I heard from New England all year. {albums available + Streaming}

photo by Artrocity

These 22 Albums made My Year

Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa -

Kevin Morby - This Is A Photograph

*Records of the Year*

Ali McGuirk - Til It's Gone -

*New England Album of the Year*

First Aid Kit - Palomino

{multiple formats + Streaming}

Murder By Death - Spell/Bound

{available Vinyl, CD + Streaming}

Filligar - Future Self {spotlight link}

{available + Streaming}

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Cold As Weiss

{Vinyl + Streaming}

Paul Cauthen - Country Coming Down

{available here and here + Streaming}

Dehd - Blue Skies

{available here and here + Streaming}

Izaak Opatz - Extra Medium

{available here and here + Streaming}

Bastards of Soul - Corners

{Vinyl here + Streaming}

Alvvays - Blue Rev

{available here and here + Streaming}

Widowspeak - The Jacket

{Bandcamp + Streaming}

St. Paul & The Broken Bones - The Alien Coast

{get your copy + Streaming}

Jack White - Fear The Dawn

{Third Man Store + Streaming}

American Aquarium - Chicamacomico

{available here and here + Streaming}

Eddie Vedder - Earthling

{the Pearl Jam store + Streaming}

Wet Leg - Wet Leg

{Domino Music store + Streaming}

Leo Nocentelli - Another Side

{availability: Vinyl, CD and Streaming}

Zola Simone - Flower (EP)

{available CD or Streaming}

Tall Heights - Juniors

{availability - Vinyl, CD and Streaming}

Ottawa's Hannah Judge is fanclubwallet

fanclubwallet - You Have To Be Kidding

{availability: CD or Streaming}

A MOST RIGHTEOUS

BEST OF 2022

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

LIES HERE

More Best of 2022 Selections! Significant Love for:
Sharon Van Etten - We've Been Going About This All Wrong
King Princess - Hold On Baby
Guided By Voices - Crystal Nuns Cathedral

Bird Language - 625 Days {artist spotlight}
Rayland Baxter - If I Were a Butterfly
Daphne Parker Powell - The Starter Wife
Matt York - Gently Used
Lola Marsh - Shot Shot Cherry
Band of Horses - Things Are Great
Big Thief - Dragon New Mountain I Believe In You
Erica Mantone - I May Have Asked For This
Larkin Poe - Blood Harmony

Weyes Blood - And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

Last Chance - Last Chance {interview link}

Senseless Optimism - It Gets Better (EP)
Lake Street Dive - Fun Machine: The Sequel
GA-20 - Crackdown
Hush Club - Fingerprints & Stains
Totem - The Power To Forgive
Fantastic Cat - Fantastic Cat
Cordelia - How it Began

The 40 Greatest Pearl Jam Songs

2022-12-23T08:53:00.007-05:00

Celebrating the band's catalog on Eddie Vedder's birthday (12/23/64)

Black
I Got ID
State of Love and Trust
Not For You
Alive
I Am Mine
Just Breathe
Yellow Ledbetter
Given To Fly
Crazy Mary
Dissident
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter in a Small Town
Corduroy
Why Go
Rearviewwindow
Release
Off He Goes
Immortality
Nothingman
Glorified G
Even Flow
Jeremy
Daughter
Retrograde
Love Reign O'er Me (The Who)
Wishlist
Sirens
Indifference
Better Man
Porch
Superblood Wolfmoon
Smile
Swallowed Whole
In Hiding

Footsteps
Comes Then Goes
Santa Cruz
Seven O'Clock
Dance of the Clairvoyants

PEARL JAM

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The Last Chance Interview with Dave Baron

2022-12-11T19:22:00.049-05:00

Rising from the dust of the pre-pandemic world, the debut record from Last Chance (Brooklyn, NY) has dropped and is proving to be one of my guilty listening pleasures this year. A guitar garage classic out of the gates, this bold little record gets set on repeat regularly and rolls on cleaning days and long drives into the office. Curious to find out more, I reached out to Dave Baron, guitarist/songwriter/producer for Last Chance in an attempt to learn more about the record and the band. Baron, formally of the celebrated rock band Feints, is someone I was excited to hear making records again. His trademark riffs and guitar arrangements are one of the reasons why the red-hot Feints burned so bright.

Last Chance is Jordan Cannata, Frankie Rage, Rob Phillips and Dave Baron.

RYAN (RSL): “Dave – congratulations on Last Chance! And thanks for making time for an interview about the new album. I have this idea of you knocking around the house unable to sit still. Eventually songs with big guitar solo epiphanies exploded out! How right am I?”

DAVE BARON: "Thank you! I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the album. As far as not being able to sit still, I actually did sit still (musically) for quite a while after Feints went on permanent hiatus in 2015. That band was a hard act to follow. It was the bombastic, no-limits, BIG ROCK band of my dreams. When we stopped, it was very hard for me to figure out what to do next musically. It was no sure thing that I’d ever do any music project or recording again. What I did mostly after Feints was practice – trying to improve my guitar game and musicianship. And while doing that is rewarding on a personal level, without any practical application of playing live or recording, it’s all rather academic. I felt like: OK, I’m a bit better now. So what? When I moved from Boston to Brooklyn, I started looking for new musical possibilities. I went to some jams. I auditioned for some bands, but nothing felt right."

Baron posted a guitarist-available ad online which resulted in Last Chance singer Frankie Rage knocking on his door. It was the beginning of great things.

"Frankie’s an original, NYC punk rock guy, and I’m a heavy rock/metal guy, but once we started talking, we clicked immediately, both musically and personally. And though I knew the music we’d create together would be quite different from Feints, it was still very much riffy rock – something I felt could sink my teeth into, that could be really special, and very cool.

Guitar Ace Dave Baron

"Guitar solos are always going to be a part of how I express myself in any music I make. I enjoy creating that song-within-a-song aspect in my music."

RSL: “Last Chance also features your Feints bandmate Rob Phillips. And the two of you are credited with its Production and Mastering. What has it been like working with Rob again? How different was the creativity process for you this time around?”

DAVE BARON: "Rob is my musical brother, and I have enormous respect for him. We have a great musical rapport, both as players and as producers. We produced all of the Feints music together, and I told Frankie from the jump that we should bring Rob in to co-produce the Last Chance album. Frankie loved the Feints stuff, so bringing in Rob to co-produce wasn’t a hard sell.

Phillips & Baron celebrate in studio

I would have brought Rob in on bass originally, too, but when we first started, Frankie said, “I already have the bassist – a guy I’ve known for years.” Long story, short: Frankie’s bassist didn’t work out, and neither did a half a dozen drummers – for very common, lunkhead-musician reasons. But when all of that imploded, I said to Frankie, “Look, let’s just bring Rob in on bass (as well as production). He’s a great musician who plays bass, keys, guitar, and produces. He’ll be our John Paul Jones. There won’t be any drama because he and I already work really well together, and you’ll like him, too.” Again. It didn’t take much to sell Frankie on Rob. The evidence of Rob’s bass prowess was also all over the Feints tracks.

"As far as the creative process goes, it was very familiar territory working with Rob, but I have to say, in the time between Feints and Last Chance, Rob – who’s a good deal younger than both Frankie and I – matured a lot. In the past, Rob was less willing to push himself, but we did a lot of marathon production sessions (sometimes 12 hours) to finish the Last Chance album. He would have balked at that in the Feints days. He definitely stepped it up. And I think that one of the reasons why we work well together is that as producers, I tend to lean bold. That old, I want everything louder than everything else. Whereas Rob tends to lean conservative. So when we meet somewhere in the middle, it’s usually the right balance. And when Rob’s on bass, he’s competing with my guitars which are always a roaring T-Rex, and Jordan who’s a fucking monster on drums. We needed Rob to embrace his inner rock star and vie for equal attention, on bass as well. He stepped up there, too."

RSL: “I cannot help but notice that buried amidst the fury of drums and guitar ‘Last Chance’ the album has some songs with darker meaning. Was that intentional or incidental? How close is this album and its pieces from your original concept?”

DAVE BARON: "Yeah. It’s a dark album, no doubt. "Anything but That" is a very literal song about the pain of losing my father – horribly – to Alzheimers in 2021. It doesn’t get much darker than that. The album was largely written under COVID lockdown. A dark time for everyone, and certainly for me. Conceptually, we really didn’t set out to do anything specific – dark or otherwise. Frankie had some rough song ideas demoed that pre-dated our working together (Gotcha Back, Tattoo, Human Eyes, Kamikaze). We hammered those ideas into fully-fledged songs. As those songs solidified, we usually had to re-work the lyrics to fit the new arrangements. But on Frankie’s ideas, we tried to retain at least some of the original lyrical concepts. So, for example, Kamikaze started off being about self-destructive behavior, but it ended up being more."

RSL: “Can you walk us through Kamikaze? Was the creative process for the song?”

DAVE BARON: "Kamikaze was a Frankie idea that was originally just a series of ideas wrapped into one demo. It had like four bridges (I think they were bridges). Anyway, lots of extra parts that didn’t fit the song. What you hear in our version strips out all the excess and uses just the best bits, re-arranged. And it was a difficult song to piece together. Frankie and I reworked the lyrics to the new arrangement together. It started off being about one guy’s self-destructive behavior, but soon, I found myself wanting to inject the duality of the Japanese Kamikaze pilot experience into the lyrics, and then into the sound. Frankie and I are both into WWII history, and it seemed like a cool idea. IMO, the duality works. For example, Big flaming Zero, could be a self-deprecating euphemism (as in, I’m a zero of a human being). Or it could be the duality of slamming an aircraft into a ship. I also knew I could work the sonics of that topic into the song in a fun way.

"There were times Frankie was unsure whether we should pursue Kamikaze, but the chorus was so damn catchy, I knew we had something. So I kept saying, “yeah, it’s going to work, and it’s going to be great,” I just didn’t know how it would work until later.

"Kamikaze didn’t really come together until Jordan laid down his AMAZING drum groove for the song. Once he cut the drums, I got super excited about Kamikaze, and I knew that it was going to be epic! Once we had those drums, I knew what to do on the guitars, and more importantly, it gave Rob a direction for that totally sick bass part he came up with! The ending of the song is my recreation of a 1940s south Pacific carrier battle on guitar. Very fun! Great closer for the album.

LINK: LAST CHANCE

New Songs signal a triumphant 625 Days for Bird Language

2022-03-29T14:42:00.003-04:00

The sun rises on First Date, the new single from Bird Language. The second recent drop from the Boston five-some's upcoming full length debut, 625 Days, this song is particularly strong; offering standout atmospheric rock and space between the notes. This from a band which has become as well known for their diverse styles as their (sometimes) raucous live performances. The new track concerns the observations of a spectator to a new couple's first date - something of a sociological study amid song.

“It's the story of a first date at my favorite Somerville bar, Highland Kitchen,” says Bird Language vocalist, keyboardist, and lyricist Jeff Nicolai. "I was there one night and it seemed like every couple at the bar was on a first date. One looked like they were having trouble staying focused on each other, but trying really hard. The other seemed to have one person who was clearly talking way too much.”

Taking chances may be the theme of the song but it isn't the story of this band. After some chance jam sessions a few years ago, things really started to emerge. And just then COVID landed and disrupted the whole world. In this case it may have presented the group with real opportunity. Constructing a full album from the ground up, periodically meeting when safe to record in pockets as allowed by disparate lives. The new full length album, 625 Days, will be out later this Spring.

Pat Piaskecki photo

“For me what makes a song good is the emotions you feel hearing different chords and notes,” says Simmons. “Those choices can transport the listener to a new place. I want the listener to feel what I felt writing it,” says Simmons. "“It’s not always easy to leave empty space sonically with a five-piece band; everyone wants to be heard, but I think we do a decent job holding back our play for the betterment of the song.”

BIRD LANGUAGE
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