Two Nerd Birds with One Stone

Maybe it’s the direly downward dollar or all this pirate talk. It could also be that it’s officially a month into spring and the grass is pigment-less and the flowering trees have been thwarted by our once-a-winter snow. It might even be the realization that Denver is now stuck with once-a-winter snow. Needless to say, we all could use some happy music. But since searching for happy music often ends in the discovery of sad and angry music—such a tricky process—I suggest to you this practice. To find the quintessence of musical happy, that which sinks the pirates, fills the grass with green, and restores Colorado water levels all at once, you must first test the album while you clean. It’s the whistle-while-you-work phenomenon: happy music channels motion and productivity, it changes our mood, and it actually makes us cheery to the point that we’d do something as undesirable as scrubbing toilets. It seems the degree to which and the speed with which we clean is directly proportional to the level of musical happy. Yes, that’s it. Kate Nash, Bishop Allen, and Ben Kweller go with rubber gloves while Fleet Foxes, Stars, and MGMT do not. It’s sensible though unproven. Nevertheless, you’re sure to enjoy both a clean apartment and smiley music.

Putting the "rock" back in "rock-a-bye baby"

So I really like Paste. The magazine, not the sticky stuff that I'm constantly having to tell kids not to eat. I also really like children's books (hence the whole librarian thing) and indie rock (hence my whole skinny-boys-that-look-kinda-like-Ira-Glass thing). So when the music mag announced their first foray into the hairy, scary world of book publishing with An Indie Rock Alphabet Book, I kinda peed my pants a little.

This book is the alphabet the way we all wish we'd learned it, from Animal Collective to the Zombies, with the kind of delightfully snotty musical insight that could only come from Paste. With high-color, blocky illustrations, An Indie Rock Alphabet Book ensures that the reader understands that y comes before z, and that Yo La Tengo is the only noteworthy musical act to come out of Hoboken since Ol' Blue Eyes.

And at a mere $12.95, it's a lot cheaper than that music theory degree you aren't using.

Beast makes me feel like James Bond

The Nerd Birds have just discovered Montreal-based band, Beast, and we are OBSESSED. Beast makes some of the most bad-ass and cinematic music we have heard in years. Beast is also very hard to describe. Beast sounds like Massive Attack meets Amy Winehouse + the best of James bond theme music. Oh yeah, and then there are the gospel influences...

Listening to Beast's self-titled debut makes me feel like an international man of mystery. When I pop this record in on the way to the grocery store, I feel like the journey is fraught with car chases, shoot-outs, and short-lived trysts with European babes. Then I buy eggs and cheese. A man can dream, right?

"Microcyte" marries a cinematic piano line with Betty Bonifassi's driving vocals and a jewel-heist worthy track. "Satan" makes you want to hug a whiskey bottle and kiss your friends goodbye before your heist turns south.

The new Beast record is so cinematic, it prompted us at Nerd Bird HQ to start writing a Beast and Guy Ritchie inspired crime-caper screenplay. That's how nerdy we are, and how incredible Beast is.

The Nerd Bird gives Beast's self-titled debut 4 out of 5 tweets.

Beast - "Out Of Control" live in Toronto:

Flight of the Nerd Birds

Welcome to Nerd Bird! Stay tuned for record reviews, concert photos, interviews, music news, and random musings!