Yer Blog | new music

Yer Bird’s on Facebook - lots of videos and streaming tracks and the like - it’s here.

Hey gang - Yer Bird won’t be making it to SXSW (wouldn’t you rather we spent all that money on a new record?) but for those of you going, many of your Yer Bird-related favorites will be there, so here’s some shows that will be fantastic that you shouldn’t miss:

J. Tillman
Alina Simone
Chris Bathgate
O’Death
Frontier Ruckus
Also, one of the most kick-ass Mexican rock bands is playing, Mockinpott, so you absolutely see them, too. They have an excellent free digital EP you can download here.

Two of my all-time favorite records, Matthew Ryan’s home recording albums Dissent From the Living Room and Hopeless to Hopeful are being hosted with his blessing at the Ear Candies blog for free - go get them.

Yer Bird is still developing our upcoming overhauled website - it’s coming later this year and is going to have more great music available than I can tell you about. It’s going to be sweet. In the meantime, here’s some new guys from MySpace that I’ve been enjoying lately that I’m sure you guys’ll dig.

Tad Wagner - myspace | website
Pretty melodic folk from one of the members of the Film Guerro label (Norfolk & Western, Holy Sons, Tracker) bands, Buellton.
recommended track: Silver Bird

Tiny Echoes - myspace
Minimalist folk - my favorite! - from Northern Ireland. He’s got a full record, The Underground Storm, up for free.
recommended tracks: The Same, Broken

The Mountain Apple Epidemic - myspace
Gothic Nick-Cave-y soundscapes and dark mumblings and a clear 16 Horsepower influence - it’s pretty awesome.
recommended tracks: A Golden Veil, Fenced in Heavens (sweet lord this track kicks ass)

I don’t know that I’ve mentioned enough how excellent Thomas Denver Jonsson is. Those how know his work surely don’t need to be told, but he’s a huge talent just waiting to be discovered - heavy doses of solo Tom Petty and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere Neil Young combined with a good bit of Damien Jurado storytelling. His new record only further cements this lofty praise - the brand new The Lake Acts Like an Ocean is brimming with the results of a perfected craft from a consummate songwriter.
Website | MySpace
Thomas Denver Jonsson - What I Dream
Thomas Denver Jonsson - The Border
Thomas Denver Jonsson - Silver Boy

A gorgeous cover of Hezekiah Jones’ ‘How You Feel about Traveling’

Hey all - big things going on in the Yer Bird underground here, and I KNOW that there hasn’t been enough music posted here, but once this project gets off the ground we’ll be throwing more awesome music at you than you can handle..

However, before that happens I need to get some support from some people - right now I’m looking for find someone or someones who are interested in working with Yer Bird and myself on creating a project in Plone and perhaps integrating it with the verge-of-awesomeness Mozilla project, SongBird.

So, if anyone has any interest in discussing this, please contact Morgan at yerbird@yerbird.com.

Thanks!

I’ve been reluctant to promote these guys too much because I want to hide them from other labels snagging them, but they are just so good! If you can picture Jeff Mangum having his friends over and hanging out playing on the porch at a farmhouse, you’d be getting in the right direction. The songs are instantly memorable, the lyrics are swirlingly dense with rich language and the instrumentation is somewhere between subtle and epic, depending on the mood, I’ve found. Anyway - it’s great and they have several albums worth of demos up on their website for you to download.

They also have a fantastic EP, I Am the Water You Are Pumping, that you should try to track down if possible, as it’s absolutely fantastic. I don’t do as much on this blog as I used to, but a lot of that is because I don’t have my mind blown by new stuff that often - this is certainly worth taking note of.

Frontier Ruckus - Dark Autumn Hour (my favorite folk song of 07!)
Frontier Ruckus - Adirondack Amish Holler

You surely remember these guys from the Yer Bird comp, right? They did the awesome ‘Too Much Too Quickly’ which was a highlight amongst many highlights. Well, they are finishing up their new album, Days of My Escape, which should be out in a couple of months, but Autumn Tone just rereleased their stellar debut album Shadows Rise so can finally get your hands on it. Sweet!

here’s some tracks:
Travel By Sea - Consequence (LTS)
Travel By Sea - Complete Shakeup

Hey gang - long time no see. Yer Bird is busy as always - The J. Tillman record and the Folk Music for the End of the World comp have been selling briskly and the graphic design side of things has been real busy, too. There’s about a dozen - no shit - releases in the works for the next 2 years. It’s going to be something if I can ever get enough cash to keep the good ship Yer Bird afloat.

Anyway, last week Yer Bird and Hezekiah Jones presented a pair of shows on the East Coast featuring some good friends and artists featured on the comp. Besides the guys I already knew were awesome (O’Death, Chris Bathgate, Hezekiah Jones, Hoots and Hellmouth) I was blown away by some of the other bands on the bills - particularly the stunning The Spinning Leaves. Their song Bridges for Free is jaw-dropping, reminiscent of Desolation Row-Dylan and Return of the Grievous Angel-Gram Parsons with Emmylou. Besides this juggernaut of awesomeness, the song Marigolds is fantastic and a little Vetiver-y, Sad Maggie’s a melodic marvel and Transistor Radio is gorgeous pop ditty with Barbara Gettes on lead vocals.

Anyway, check it out:

The Spinning Leaves - Bridges for Free
The Spinning Leaves - Marigolds
The Spinning Leaves - Sad Maggie
Check out more stuff (particularly Transistor Radio) on their two myspace1 | myspace2 pages