My selections for October 2018. Hear the full playlist at www.birp.fm

BIRP! October 2018

Above Average

eyes open wide, i can't see just give me your hand
i can't breathe, doubling the hydrogen sky above or floor below
no don't go backward or fast forward
keeps my arms still, I'll be surfacing, surfacing in no time
back, back to where it begins, we learned to swim
same mistake, made on the shore, running round, nowhere to go
no don't go backward, no don't fast forward
can't i hold still I'd be surfacing, surfacing in no time
no don't go backward, or fast forward
keep my arms still, I'll be surfacing, surfacing in no time
no don't go backward, or fast forward
keep my arms still, I'll be surfacing, surfacing in no time

Below

'Cactus Country' is the first single from Cool Sounds' forthcoming album of the same name. Out October 26, 2018 via Hotel Motel and physically on Osborne Again

Cactus Country

Tomberlin - Any Other Way
From the album At Weddings - Out now!
Order here: http://tomberlin.lnk.to/AtWeddings

Tomberlin - Any Other Way

Time is Wild

All music and lyrics written, performed and produced by Emile van Dango.

Dreaming about her
Dripping pendulum curls 
That pull at your world
As your minds swim together
The dark of your night cannot douse out the light
That shines on the Heather

I melt at the sight that bleeds crude,
And divine,
And spits life on the ashes
I’ll take what I can before I wake up,
Then I’ll leave forever.
It’s a routine delay that I always replay
And place on display.
It’s my calling card when I’m falling apart.

Moonlight trickles through the shutters.
Subtle, dim lit appeal
Flickers hints over contours
And leaves me in tatters
“I’ll bare all the scars”, the final remarks
Of a man at his limits.
The sugared scent of desire, leaks fuel in the fire
And fogs up perceptions,

Cue the hazy hum that grips at your lungs
Like it’s begging you for something
To cave, 
Or to remain the pristine young slave
To the draw of lightning
It gets harder to shake
With no moves left to make.

Sermon on Desire

Ain't Gonna Call

Music by Johanneke Kranendonk, David Hoogerheide, Hellen Vissers, KW Toering
Produced  by David Hoogerheide
Lyrics by Johanneke Kranendonk and Hellen Vissers
Mixed by Thijs van der Klugt
Mastered by Pieter Kloos
Vocals by Johanneke Kranendonk
Synths by David Hoogerheide
Guitar by Gijs Coolen
Bass by Gijs Loots
Drums by Tobias Ponsioen or Nicky Hustinx

Video by Sophia Mutiara de Geus - Tiny Sob Productions https://youtu.be/MUi3XTDPU_k

Costume by Geeske de Graaff
Photography by Maria Stijger
Makeup by Fenneke Pommer

Clearing

"Cry Wolf" is taken from Skylar Spence's forthcoming two-track release, "Carousel / Cry Wolf," out September 5th, 2018.

PRE-ORDER
smarturl.it/skylarspence_ccw

Skylar Spence - Cry Wolf

Pro Teens - Death, Cranked

STEPHEN STEINBRINK
Utopia Teased

US pre-order: http://westernvinyl.com/shop/wv180
UK/EU pre-order: https://www.melodic.co.uk/product/stephen-steinbrink-utopia-teased-pre-order/
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/5Qo591Xv69WpUaRpziRIwA


Stunned with grief in the months following the Ghost Ship fire, Oakland-based Stephen Steinbrink ate LSD daily, bought a synthesizer, and locked himself in his shipping container studio, refusing to sleep for days as he wrote and recorded what would become Utopia Teased, as a means of working through his overwhelming feelings of cynicism and loss.  

Recorded in between stints touring as a member of Dear Nora, and then as a touring member of Girlpool, Utopia Teased is Stephen Steinbrink's followup to his critically acclaimed 2016 album Anagrams.  Unlike the pristine production of Anagrams, on Utopia Teased, Steinbrink embraces the rough edges, as he shifts his focus from the craft of production to the art of processing and capturing his experiences with honesty.   He explains, “I was driving the preamps a little too hard, mixing down to tape, bouncing back to the computer, and repeating the process over and over again. I wanted it to reflect how fried my brain felt at the time, totally pulverized.  The songs just poured out of me, it hardly felt like work to make them up. It was like turing on a spigot. I don’t write often, maybe once or twice a year, but when I do, a lot comes out. To me my craft is less about putting in the hours physically playing music — the real work is getting my soul right so that when the holy wave of pure creative energy moves over your house, it will recognize you as worthy enough. If it does, maybe it’ll give you a song.” 

“Empty Vessel” and “Maximum Sunlight” both sung from perspective of residents of Tonopah, Nevada, were written to accompany a book about the town, by Steinbrink's friend Meagan Day.  The sparse imagery on “Empty Vessel,” ostensibly about a semi-transient lock-picking truck driver, feels at least semi-autobiographical as Steinbrink sings “You're 31, you don't believe in anything…If you don't stop moving you'll never get hurt.”  His evocative lyrics continue to intrigue on “Maximum Sunlight” as he sings “Sleeping through the night in the drained pool / I said I love you to a fool” from the perspective of a 30-year-old alcoholic ATV enthusiast.  At the close of the, too-little-too-late acoustic narrative “Mom”, guest vocalist Melina Duterte of Jay Som joins him in conjuring a memory of listening to extraterrestrial radio, drifting asleep in a suburban Phoenix Wal-Mart parking lot.  The album’s heartbreaking closer “I’m Never Changing Who You Are” continues Steinbrink’s recollection of his adolescence, asking an unnamed family member “Will you try to love more than you did?” while soberly accepting his reality. 

In an interview with North of the Internet, Steinbrink recalled a video he came across on his phone, which was taken the day after the fire, “It sent me spiraling and thinking, it’s almost been a year. Nothing really felt actual those weeks, and I could only only react to the future at a remove because the horror of everything was inescapably tying me to the present. The idea of doing laundry or driving across the bridge to San Francisco to work was too abstract, so I just didn’t do it. I hardly did anything. Two days after the fire I woke up, walked to P.’s porch and sat there for hours alone and cried without a jacket on until the sun started going down. Geese were flying across power lines at dusk and I took a video of them on my phone. I imagined one of the birds was my friend.”  In the same interview, he goes on to share some insight provided by a friend he reached out to when trying to finalize the album: “Finishing the thing puts a limit around something that comes from an infinite well; this is uncomfortable.” True.

Bad Love

Second single from our new record "Maybe I'll Feel Better When I'm Dead" :)

1994

Change (ft. Julian Skiboat)

From our forthcoming EP, Superclean Vol. II.

Stream

Clueless

Surf Rock Is Dead - Away Message

49 Years

Roll out the dice
two foreign eyes
trying to see
what could it mean
I think that I’ve been here before I see you looking at the door 
What do you know?

I have been waiting for you to come by
and to just hang out for a while
I have been waiting all this time

We could be happy and we could be fine
been waiting forever for you to come by
We could be happy and we could be fine
been waiting forever for you to come by
We could be happy and we could be fine
been waiting forever for you to come by
We could be happy and we could be fine 
Why do I wait for you to come by

All comes in two
that look you use
tells me to leave
what could it mean
I think that we’ve been here before
I see you looking at the door
What do you know?

I have been waiting for you to come by
and to just hang out for a while (What do you see?)
I have been waiting all this time

We could be happy and we could be fine
been waiting forever for you to come by

We could be happy and we could be fine
been waiting forever for you to come by
We could be happy and we could be fine
been waiting forever for you to come by
We could be happy and we could be fine 
Why do i wait for you to come by?

Listen to Defenders Of The Glam on Spotify:
hyperurl.co/DefendersOf-Spotify

Defenders Of The Glam

Blowing out the haze
In the streetlight daze
In the middle of the summer
You're all I need
She's all I need

I still wake up
Wishing you were there 
When I opened my eyes

But don't tell me
Its not meant to be
Cause I don't really wanna hear it
I don't really wanna hear it

I dont know
Where to take you
Because i'm left here in the dark
I'm out here in the dark

And I miss the way
You used to open your eyes at me

So don't tell me
Its not meant to be
Cause I don't really wanna hear it
I don't really wanna hear it

Don't tell me!

Rose

Daze

Single

Bed Time Stories

What will i become
if I don't choose to run?
Will i wake up in darkness
reaching for the light
wishing I could be someone?

Don't Rush
Around

What will i become
if I don't choose to run run run?
See it on my face.
Crying out, crying out.

Don't Rush
Around

BIRP! October 2018

BIRP.FM