Futurebirds

Cover of the upcoming Futurebirds LP, Hampton's Lullaby  

I know I'm on a bit of a music kick lately but bear with me, it's all awesome stuff and I have some geeky posts in the pipeline. My latest obsession is the "psychedelic country" band, Futurebirds, and I've had them on heavy rotation for the past week or so. They sound like an awesome cross between Yeasayer and Dr. Dog, particularly on tracks like "MJB" (available below) off their self-titled EP. The band's upcoming release, Hampton's Lullaby, is due on July 27 and I was lucky enough to give it a spin early.

Futurebirds present a really amazing conflux of divergent musical styles. They're not an indie or jam band by any stretch of the imagination but are clearly influenced by those genres. Most intriguingly they experiment with distinctly country sounds, recontextualizing them in ways that aren't exactly country/alt country but are definitely of that ilk. This is something very interesting and, for lack of a better word, psychedelic. Tracks like "Happy Animals" and "APO" really open up and let you get lost in them, someplace between a honky tonk and a lucid dream.

Not that the bands are at all similar but the whole effect reminds me of Radiohead in a lot of ways, especially in terms of how Futurebirds's songs often sound too big for their production. Each track on Hampton's Lullaby sounds like the CD format is barely able to contain the music for all its sheer epicness. I have a really hard time imagining these guys playing at a rock club, to me it seems like they'd have to play an outdoor venue for the setting to fit their sprawling songs. If they can get the effects to sound right then these guys must put on a hell of a live show, and I for one am excited to check em out if they ever make it to Canada.

Futurebirds is the best new band I've heard in a really long time. I'll be very surprised if they don't get huge attention and acclaim come the July release of Hampton's Lullaby. Definitely check em out, MP3s and relevant links below:

Johnny Utah
MJB (via hearya.com)
MySpace
Stream or Digitally Download the Futurebirds EP