Beyond Excited for the New Birds in Row Album

So this blog has been really lame for the last five months. It originally started as a way to practice writing about music under a penname so I could get better and hopefully make a career out of it. It started to lose its magic when I was too busy with my actual journalism classes, and I was also expecting a lot more comments on my posts by now. So this kind of took the back burner for a while. Actually, I've written maybe a dozen or so new posts since January, but they're just rotting away in my drafts box half-written.

But today I feel full of energy and I'm just dying to write about the new Birds in Row album out later this year through Deathwish!!


Birds in Row (I keep wanting to add an 'a' in there) signed to Deathwish last year and I could have cared less.

Birds in Row doing what they do best: cropping their

faces out of frame. Kind of dig it.

I philosophically decided in one of my older blogs that in order to discover a new band, one must have two things: exposure and drive. My exposure was through Deathwish's news feed, but my drive was lacking. Nothing about this band really caught my attention.

A grammatically incorrect name? A really boring flower logo that looks like Pacman? They're French? No thanks, I'll pass. I won't even simply press "play" on the youtube video accompanying their press release to see what they're all about.

Big mistake. Something I previously said I'd never do.

Today, Deathwish announced they'd soon be releasing their debut album You, Me & The Violence (note the lack of the oxford comma, Deathwish--note that I finally understand why oxford commas are so annoying, journalism teachers).

In my experiences, "soon" in Deathwish lingo means it'll randomly be available in their webstore without warning maybe four months from now. Oh and that limited edition vinyl you wanted? Sold out yesterday. Seriously, would a release date kill you?

FOCUS FOOL, FOCUS.

Anywho, I decided this time pressing "play" on their video for their new video for "Pilori" wouldn't kill me. Smart move. Do yourself a favor and follow suit:

This song has a surprising number of parts to it for a hardcore song--kind of progressive, no? It starts off pummeling your face off. The pummeling part seems familiar like I've heard it before, though it still feels fresh somehow. Major kudos for not beating that dead horse--it's just a bloody spot behind someone's farm at this point.

And then, right when I was expecting it to actually conform to hardcore standards with a breakdown, it actually blossoms into this awesome emotional soundscape while still maintaining a sense of urgency.

I actually agree (for once) with Deathwish's promo for the band: "Collectively carrying somber hearts and poignant souls, they navigate through melancholic seas to shape beautifully hook-laden songs unlike anything else out there today."

This certainly feels like what Defeater and Pianos Become the Teeth are trying to achieve, but it also feels like a much more realized and matured version of what these other guys are going for. It really isn't like anything else out there today. Unless of course you wait another five years for the rest of the world to catch up.

The cover art for You, Me & The Violence perfectly captures both the feeling I get when I listen to Birds in Row and also the what I think of when I read that album's title. Very dark, very beautiful and very... noir. (Hm, who saw that one coming?)

In the meantime, while you wait for "soon" to arrive, checkout Birds in Row's compilation of early releases Collected on Bandcamp (the love of my life) courtesy of Vitriol Records.

Below is a stream of their most foolish song, the "Ace of Fools" off of Collected. It's a song about me (but not really).