Bird Log II. - December 2024
Hello amigos,
As I write this, the first snow of the year is falling on our fair seacoast city. Christmas lights blink through the bare branches, reminding me that the year is almost at an end; soon the bars will be full of students on winter break, and we ourselves may be entertaining a parade of far-flung friends who find themselves back in New England for the holidays. We admit that at Bird Friend HQ don’t really do the holidays in the traditional sense. Now, more than ever, any sort of buying ritual seems to be an excuse to make rich people richer, and to generate a lot of garbage. But we reserve the right to express gratitude, the close of the year, to our friends and fans who make our lives of art so fulfilling. We love ya. If you would like to get us a gift this year, you can donate to one of the following causes:
NHMARF (NH mutual aid)
Reproductive Freedom Fund of NH (NH abortion care access)
Gather (Seacoast-area food security)
All three of these organizations directly support folks in our communities. Our home state of New Hampshire ranks among the lowest in the US for employee rights and minimum wages, has one of the highest costs of living, and - due to our wacky tax system - our local governments disproportionally favor the political needs of wealthy property owners. Besides that, we just elected a Republican governor. When considering our vulnerable neighbors and community members, put aside the “holiday season” and remember that our winters go on long past New Year’s Day. After the Season of Giving Spending is over, many folks will be less willing to part with their hard-earned money, even if some of our more hard-up citizens have it way worse. Keep up the chain of support this winter!
Anyways - this is a band blog, and it would be prudent to talk about what the band is up to.
We’ve released our first live EP, Live at The Press Room, which was recorded at the titular Portsmouth venue last summer. A few songs - “Dance With The Devil” and “Rite Aid Parking Lot Song” - have already seen release this year. The rest of the material, from this particularly hot home-turf set, is now available as a five-song EP! New songs include:
“The Visitors” - in which the march of time abandons those who are unable to adapt to an alienating future.
“All Night Grocery” - in which the fleeting nature of the “present” is revealed during a trip to a hometown convenience store.
“Bong Tent Blues” - in which the memory of a fallen friend haunts a region devastated by the opioid crisis.
Besides that, we revisit two older classics:
“Hello, Caroline” - the lead single from 2021’s Caroline, Know has been reimagined as a shambling country waltz and barroom singalong.
“I Talked About John” - this parlor room reminiscence from 2020’s I Am The Hand has been stripped down to showcase our three-part harmonies.
We are really excited about this release, as it begins to close the gap between our delicate studio-recorded sound and the ferocious energy of our live shows. Live at The Press Room can be heard on Spotify, Apple Music. and Bandcamp.
If you’re still committed to physical releases (and if you are, God bless you), we’ve anthologized the last three years of Bird Friend on a CD collection called A Real Bad Feeling. This CD contains all of the live material mentioned above, as well as the singles “Massabesic Jones//The Living Dead,” “Port Authority Zone,” “Salamander,” and “Summer Slow Dance.” It has all kinds of nice photos of us and our friends inside the gatefold. You can pick this up on Bandcamp or at one of our upcoming shows.
Speaking of which - here’s where you can find us the next few weeks:
12/11 @ Bards on The Rocks, Hopknot, Manchester NH
12/23 @ Candia Road Brewing Company, Manchester NH
01/25 @ The Firehouse, Worcester MA
The snow outside has turned to rain, churning up the mud in the neighbor’s lawn and in the woods across the street. The branches of the tree outside the window are heavy with moisture. The scene is a perfect companion to what’s been on the stereo up here this month. Richard & Linda Thompson’s “Down Where The Drunkards Roll” seems to echo down the soggy Portsmouth streets this time of year, as does George Harrison’s “Be Here Now.” But it’s not all softly-strummed introspection - our recent family viewing of Ken Burns’ Country Music series has us revisiting some of our treasured country staples like the Maddox Brothers & Rose’s “I’ll Make Sweet Love to You,” and Dolly Parton’s authoritative take on “Muleskinner Blues.” Besides that, we’ve been on our annual Woody Guthrie trip - he’s got too many good ones to mention, so here’s one that’s got us tickled lately: “Mean Talking Blues.”
That’s all for now. Love ya.
-Bird Friend
