I have invented a new word - or rather, an art form. I call it "promastication". It's a portmanteau of "procrastination" and everyone's favourite sounds-dirty-but-it's-not synonym for chewing, and it means "the practice of eating when one should be working". I have just now decided that the art of promastication also involves the consumption of huge amounts of tasty new tunes. I have realised in horror that I have not actually posted for weeks, for which I will blame the fact that uni has eaten my soul. But I have managed to nibble on some damn delicious little sambos in this time of trial - including the squee-worthy, long-awaited goodness of the new Red Riders album, Replica Replica, which you can buy here.



Sydney, Australia
I have ranted before about the injustices of demos that don't, um, do justice to the sound of a really great band. So I won't bore you again. Instead, I will tell you some things that do not bore me about Bird Automatic:
1) The fact that in the space of the three songs that constitute their Comfortably Optimistic EP, they manage to segue from a sweetly sad pop song to the synthy, darker goodness of "Wake Up", reminding me by turns of Gersey, The Stills, and a less oblique Album Leaf, and still sound like themselves.
2) How unabashedly sweet "Comfortably Optimistic" is. Boys (that is, the ones with any kind of self-awareness) just do not write enough sugar into their songs these days. They're all terrified of being chucked in the Keane box, so they temper the sweet with existential pain, or convoluted quirk. But here it's like an extra half-teaspoon of CSR in your tea - at first you notice it's a little more than you normally like, but after just a couple of sips you're taken back to your younger days when you used to have, like five spoons. In your Nesquik. And you never, ever got cavities. Because everything was always OK! Mmmm. Sugar.
3) The way "Wake Up" sounds like the beginning half of Tunng's Bloc Party cover, "Pioneers", (you know, before it descends into that weird twangy shit). I love the sample-y vocal bits, the buzzy darkness and the way the guitar buggers off into the gloom and then wanders back, muttering.
4) The feeling I get that Bird Automatic will do some very cool things to these already-very-cool tunes in their live show. And the premonition I have that said live show is coming soon to an apartment near you... Ahem.

Bird Automatic - Comfortably Optimistic.mp3
Bird Automatic - Wake Up.mp3
MySpace



Somewhere in Scandinavia
I adore "Young Folks". How could you not? It's so freakin' cute, it's like the aural equivalent of that big-eyed look Puss In Boots pulls in Shrek 2. But it's a delicate little wisp of a song, with Victoria's voice sounding like it's about to break in half, and you don't feel like you can do anything more robust than whistling along with that pre-school spaghetti-western twinkle. If you want to just go nuts, this is your song. If Belle & Sebastian put down their books and went for a breezy summer drive in a bright-blue convertible, just to show their ex how much FUN they're having without them, this would be the soundtrack. The little piano, the big and irresistible "WOO HOO!"s, and an earwormy guitar that's like the twee equivalent of the one from Moloko's "The Time Is Now" - try and listen with a straight face. (I kiss the impeccably shod feet of The Rich Girls Are Weeping for bringing this to my attention.)

Deportees - Missing You, Missing Me.mp3
MySpace

Labels: Bird Automatic