The Dirty Birds

UPDATE: ACTUALLY, WE HAD TO MOVE THE “FAREWELL GREG” SHOW BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL TIME, WED. FEB. 16TH at 10pm. Sorry for the confusion…

Legions,

We’re moving our “Farewell Greg” gig to Friday, February 25th at 9pm.  We’ll still be playing at Spike Hill, and I’ll (Jared) be playing a solo show there on Wednesday the 16th.  Both shows are free.

FRIDAY FEB. 25TH – 9pm

This will basically be a greatest hits performance and a goodbye to Greg.  We’ll be playing a big portion of How the Cause Became the Cure, a couple new songs from the EP, and some classic covers.  It’ll be a big, hyped-up show, and hopefully we’ll completely blow up Spike Hill.  There will be female backup singers.  Finally.

WEDNESDAY FEB. 16TH – 10pm

I’ll be playing solo, mostly new songs.  If you’ve been listening to the EP and enjoying it, come to see this set, because there’s a lot more where the new songs came from.  There are songs about coal mines and street dogs, elaborate religious metaphors based on card games, astrology and strange coincidences, and of course, loooove.

CHECK OUT THE NEW EP!

-Jared

P.S.  The latest thank you videos are up: (Mad Men Parody) and (Rap for Matt Simon)

Related show

• Artist: The Dirty Birds
• Date: Wednesday, February 16th 2011
• Time: 10:00pm
• City: The Dirty Birds in Brooklyn
• Venue: Spike Hill
• Address: 184 Bedford Ave.
• Country: United States
• Admission: Free
• Age restrictions: No Minors
• Notes: Jared solo set
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

UPDATE: LISTEN TO THE WHOLE EP ON BANDCAMP!!!

Oi legiões,

For once, I’m gonna stick to a single topic with this blog.

I just put the new Dirty Birds EP online.  We’ve given it the title Wasteland Blues.  I’ve posted it before, but here’s the artwork.  My brother’s friend Mike Salvato worked on this for weeks, put up with my esoteric, nonsensical instructions and redrew a few things multiple times to strike the right balance of intriguingly weird, quasi-religious imagery.

I’m not going to explain it, but I can at least give you some indications, since you’re curious enough to read this blog.  The image is primarily derived from the song “The Holy Grail Blues.”  We’ve been playing that song live for a while now, and the recording is pretty damn great, if I do say so myself (and I do).  It’s the first DBs song to be delivered in character, essentially depicting a failed spiritual quest.  Is he a drugged-out bum?  A washed-up, weary knight?  I’ll leave that up to you guys.  In the album cover, he’s presented as a sort of anti-Fisher King.  I know it’ll bring up associations of horrendous 70s British prog, but I’ve developed a surprising fascination with Arthurian legend and the completely bizarre symbolic imagery of alchemy (which is more interested in mysticism than gold, for the record).  So, if you’re inspired, hit up Wikipedia and see what you can figure out.  Keywords: wasteland, Holy Grail, Fisher King, Bleeding Lance, Perceval…

As for the rest of the EP, this is basically our way of introducing this whole new universe of ambitious, heady songs that I’ve been writing.  It’s only a sampling, and it’s not designed as a narrative exactly, but there is an arc from beginning to end, and there are certainly recurring themes.  I’d say the central theme is the idea of the light-bearer, starting with “Daddy,” a story-song loosely based on my Grandfather’s death.  There is some kind of light imagery in all of these songs, but it gradually shifts from a really lofty, spiritual perspective to the much more self-centered, pressing question of love. And it ends, notably, with an ellipse…

Meanwhile, the first song also introduces an element of generational struggle and coming to terms with a world in need of saving.  Which is why the EP is called Wasteland Blues instead of “Holy Grail Blues.”  All the songs I’ve been writing are derived from applying a pseudo-mythical, primitive religious perspective to the world of here and now, and to personal life stories–deliberately blowing up real-life events into larger-than-life legends to make sense of the world–and I’ve been drawing inspiration from a lot of places, mostly from the Perceval story.

Maybe it’s extremely pretentious and self-important to put my own interpretive spin on these songs before they’re even released, but I guess the biggest positive element of being a musician with zero representation is that we’re completely in control of our creative output.  And they’re aren’t a ton of snarky people paying attention just yet.  In the mean time, those of you who are interested in our music could probably use some help decoding.

As for the actual music, we recorded most of the instruments live 12/11/10 at Grand St. Recording, then I went back and overdubbed vocals and keyboards a little bit later.  Mixed and engineered by the one and only Tomek Miernowski, mastered by Ken Rich.  All the songs were arranged and produced by the whole band, with the original goal of high-quality studio demos for our Kickstarter backers.  Gradually it became something more.  I’ll say this: these songs will all probably go on our next album, and I’m sure we’ll make changes and maybe re-record a few of them, but I think the EP still stands on its own as an official Dirty Birds release.  It was done on a much more limited budget than How the Cause Became the Cure, but I think that played to our strengths this time, because it was definitely the most efficient we’ve ever been in the studio, and I think these are the most high-integrity performance we’ve ever captured on tape.

We’ll let you know when it’s online!

-Jared

P.S.  I imagine this probably sheds some light on our decision to make a Problem video, rather than Valentine’s Day…

“DREAMCATCHER,” A FREE DOWNLOAD FROM THE UPCOMING WASTELAND BLUES EP.

LISTEN, DOWNLOAD AND HELP US SPREAD THE WORD.  THE EP WILL BE OUT AT THE END OF THE WEEK.

-The Dirty Birds

Ahoy Legions!  We haven’t spoken in quite some time.  In fact, I haven’t posted a thing on this site since October.  Hopefully, the following treatise will shed some light onto the past few months in Dirty Birds-land.

I’d like to make a number of big-deal, important announcements today.  I’ve been waiting for a few things to clear up so I could drop all of this in one fell swoop of holy-shit-that’s-a-lot-of-information.  So without any further delay, here we go:

1.  FAREWELL GREG

After much soul-searching, Greg Hornby has decided to leave the Dirty Birds.  I’ll elaborate on the reasons a little bit below, but first let me say that it’s been one of the great joys of my life to get to know Greg, and a privilege and an honor to play with him.  Greg has been my sonic counterpart, co-arranger, right-hand man, and casual guitar teacher for almost 4 years now.  Needless to say, it’s hard to see him go, but this is an amiable split, and we all know it’s for the best.

These past few years have been great.  We made a record and moved out to New York to pursue proverbial fame and fortune.  We gradually developed into a solid 4-piece rock band, and spent a ton of time together making music and talking shit.  And though the first Dirty Birds album is a scattered hodgepodge of styles, the obvious glue is the meeting of Greg’s guitar-playing with my voice and songwriting.  This was a delicate balance, kind of a merging of Apollonian and Dionysian schools of art (or Beatles and Stones if you will), and we were convinced that this central push-and-pull was at the heart of the band.

But we were quite young when we started this process, and we didn’t really know ourselves that well as musicians.  As it turns out, our interests have diverged pretty wildly.  Greg’s heart, more than ever, is in rock’n'roll, with its screaming guitar solos and general badass-ery.  This is clearly the path for Greg, because he’s damn good at it.  Meanwhile, I’ve found myself drifting away from the catchy pop-rock songs of yore, moving toward a high-art, lyrics-centric, genre-bending sound that I’m still trying to catalyze.

The summer of 2009 was a really special time in our lives.  It was like the center of the Venn Diagram, the perfect moment for all our musical personalities to blend into one colorful, sprawling experiment called How the Cause Became the Cure.  But the times they are a-changin’.  We’re being pulled in different directions, and we don’t want the band to become a bad marriage.  So we’re parting ways.  BUT, we had the opportunity to do one last round of recording in December, and Greg’s never sounded better.  The new EP has what I believe is his best solo ever on record, alongside his prettiest, most subtle playing yet.  Not to mention, we got a chance to record the current Dirty Birds lineup playing live in a studio.  More on that later.

So, SAVE THE DATE! We’ll be saying goodbye to Gwegowy with a triumphant farewell show Wednesday, February 16th at 10 pm, LIVE AT SPIKE HILL in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I asked Greg if he had anything to say to the legions, and he sent this over:

To all the family, friends and fans who have followed us over the last several years:

I would first like to thank Jared for affording me the opportunity to play with him.  I couldn’t do it justice if I tried but, let me just say, it’s been an amazing experience and I’ve learned and developed an enormous amount because of it.  I’ve also been fortunate enough to work with an amazing bassist and drummer in Dave and Dustin, respectively.  The whole ride has been nothing short of an honor and a privilege for me as well.

As for the departure itself; Jared has conveyed the circumstance and the reasoning behind it very well and I feel I needn’t say more.

I think I speak on behalf of the band when I say we are all very excited about this latest recording.  I know it’s something I’m personally very proud of and I hope you will all share in our excitement and enthusiasm.  I’m also very fired up for this farewell show!  It stands to be the most triumphant and rowdy thing we’ve done yet.

Lastly, I would like to extend a colossal thank you to all of you!  We wouldn’t be anywhere without all of your love, help and support.  It’s meant more than I could ever dare to articulate.

Rest assured, you’ll all be hearing from me down the road and I look forward to seeing all of you on FEBRUARY 16th!

Greg

You thought Greg just spent his time smoking and looking awesome, but it turns out he’s actually quite a bright, articulate little boy.  We will miss you and your golden locks.

2. VALENTINE’S DAY THE PROBLEM Music Video

Let me begin this second announcement by saying thank you thank you thank you once more to all of you who helped us raise mad cash monies to make a music video.  Despite our complete and utter silence on the video these past 4 months, NO we have not run off to Tijuana to blow the money on tequila and cocaine.  The truth about what has transpired is much more boring than that (and don’t worry: all the money is sitting, untouched, in an Amazon account.)  This is the story of how we came to reject certain-pop-rock-stardom in favor of a more artful (and therefore, more rewarding) approach.

First, the bad news bears: the holiday season turned out to be a horrendous time to schedule a video shoot, especially for the team we had put together.

Second, the reflection: I took a trip to Brazil for 2 weeks to see my close friend get married.  It was a great trip, and it gave me some time away from New York to think about my life and music career and re-assess oh, just about everything.  Maybe it was the distance from my previous emotional state, or maybe being back in South America renewed the spark of my more poetic ambitions, but to my surprise I became less excited about making a Valentine’s Day video.

Then, the reality: When I got home from Brazil, we locked down a location, picked a date and started to get the ball rolling on the video shoot.  We were almost there, but fate intervened, and we hit a tiny scheduling snag which caused the whole thing to fall through, pushing us back to an inconceivably distant shoot date.  After some wringing of the hands, eventually Jason and I came to see it as an opportunity to do what we really, secretly wanted to do.  Which was when we reached our decision…

We’re going to use the money we raised on Kickstarter, with your help, to make a music video for the real Dirty Birds opus, “The Problem.” We consulted a number of you about this decision, and nobody seemed to think it was inappropriate to adjust our plans after the fundraising was done.  And virtually everyone we consulted supported the decision.  If it does upset anybody, we are really sorry (that means you, Alyse Schneider!).  BUT, we’re extremely confident that this is going to be a more compelling promotional tool in the current cultural climate, and a much better video to boot.  It’s going to be an extremely ambitious project, both logistically and artistically, and yes, it’s slowed us down even more, but it’ll be worth it.  We’ve come up with a new concept, which were still finalizing.  We’ll have to put together a new team and work out a new plan.  But it’s the next foot we want to put forward, and it’s the direction we’d like to take the band.  Not to mention, if we only get to do this once, we would like it to be for the best song, which captures the heart of the debut album.  I’ll obviously write more about this in the next few days, weeks and months, but for now, let’s talk about some…

3.  PERKS!

Those of you who helped out our Kickstarter project are probably wondering when we’re going to deliver the perks.  First of all, we sincerely apologize for the delay in getting these things to you.  A lot has happened in this arena as well, but we’re on the cusp of getting it done!!

The first thing to go out will be the ringtones.

Second, we’ll be putting our new EP online some time next week.  Those who donated $25+ were promised “access to a secret site of home-recorded demos for the next album.”  We realized we can do a little better than that.  If we’re going to unveil a bunch of new, ambitious, atmospheric material, it had better be well-recorded, careful and successful.  So we decided to make an EP of 5 new songs.  We recorded the majority of the EP live in December, working again with Tomek Miernowski.  The result has been exhilarating, both as an indication of where our new music will go, and as a product which we’re excited to get into everyone’s hands.

We’re going to put the EP on Bandcamp and sell the download for $5.  You’ll be able to stream the whole thing for free.  Those who gave $25+ on Kickstarter will receive a download code so they can get it immediately without paying for it.  But to make sure you know you’re special, when we send out physical packages, we’ll include a scrappily-but-lovably-packaged copy of the EP with lyrics.  As a treat to those who’ve read this far, I’m going to debut Mike Salvato’s recently-completed artwork for the EP, which is titled Wasteland Blues.

Meanwhile, we’re working on Thank You videos, and those will be coming out one by one for the next LONG TIME.  We have to make about 20 of them, so it’ll take a while.  (However, your expectations should be high.  The reason they’re taking so long is that we’re way too proud to release “hilarious videos” that aren’t hilarious.)

Soon we’ll send out stickers, t-shirts and posters.  After a ton of trial and error and holiday delays, we’re happy to announce that the t-shirts have been ordered and we’ll have them by the end of the month.  They’ll be screen-printed on some nice black Alternative Apparel crew shirts.  Going along with the change in plans for the video, here’s the mock-up for our t-shirt, based on an old design by Charlene Kaye, further articulated by Mike Salvato, and finalized by Three Bears Design!

Those who are awaiting custom songs will probably have to wait for a bit, because AAAHHHHHHH!

To sum up:

i. The first four-year term is over and the Dirty Birds are undergoing a “reshuffling;” ii. we’ve abandoned our catchy pop single in exchange for a dark, ambitious piece of art, which has made us 10,000 times more motivated; iii. we’ve got a new EP coming at you VERY SOON, and; iv. we’ve never been more excited to share our music with you.

Thank you, we’re looking forward to the next few months!!!!!!   Come to the show Feb. 16th to see off Mr. Greg, I promise it will be our best show ever!!!!

-Jared & the Dirty Birds

Aiiigghht legions.  I took a nice break from Dirty Birds online hysteria.  Time for me to get back on the updates.  Here’s what’s new with the Dirty Birds.

Thanks to everybody who came out to our show at Spike Hill. It was probably our best show in NYC, and inevitably our best show ever, since New York means having Dustin in the band. Spike Hill is a great space for us, and it’s always nice to play for free.
Hilarious highlights from the show:

• Multiple false starts on Valentine’s Day.  First I played the opening chords with my guitar on the wrong pickup (custom 62 Tele super-low output neck pickup which basically sounded like muddy sludge.  Then when I tried again, I had my onboard volume all the way down.  Fully blown away by my own incompetence, I took the crowd through a history lesson of the various times I’ve totally fucked up the intro to Valentine’s Day, which was great fun.
• Pretty much everybody signed the mailing list, which was cool, and they also got the opportunity to give us some feedback, in the form of the favorite song of the night.  Here’s the tally: “Stale Groove” (3 votes), “Saudade” (2 votes), “Valentine’s Day” (1 vote), “7/8 Ringtone Groove” (1 vote), “The Fury” (1 vote), and finally: “My Butt” (1 vote).  Thanks guys, we appreciate it.
• Our newest song, “The Holy Grail Blues,” kicked tons of ass, in our opinion.  It feels simply great to be playing new music.

Moving on.  To explain the title of this blog post, we have some awesome news.  The Valentine’s Day video has a Director of Photography!  His name is Adam Newport-Berra, and his previous music video credits include “Stillness Is the Move” by the Dirty Projectors, and “Let the Beat Build” by Nyle (which has generated a lot of grassroots buzz and was listed by SPIN as the 4th best video of 2009).  Apparently Adam is attracted to the word “dirty,” but not nearly as much as Dustin, I’m sure.

We’re playing two shows in the Lower East Side, in the next week and a half.  The first one will be at National Underground (downstairs), Saturday Oct. 9th at 9:15 PM.  Here’s the deal: we didn’t realize it, but cover is pretty damn high.  If you get tickets online, it’s 8 bucks.  At the door, the cover is an unreasonable $11.  The thing is, if you can make to the other show, it’ll be a lot more awesome.  Because…

There will be a Dirty Birds show on my birthday! Thursday, October 14th, at Ella Lounge.  Our previous attempts to play at Ella kind of fell flat, because we went unplugged.  Not so this time, we’ll rock out like we did at Spike Hill.  As of now, we’re the only band on the bill and we’re basically gonna run the show.  We might find somebody else to play, or we might just leave it open and play over an hour.  Cause we never, ever get to do that.  Cover is $5, we’ll be on at 10.  But more details TBA.

So, as for the video.  We hit a few scheduling snags, which was not at all a surprise.  Things have been pushed back substantially.  Hopefully we’ll shoot in November, but there are a lot of people to get together at the same time, so the actual shooting dates are still up in the air.  It’s kind of weird to wait, cause there was a lot of momentum coming out of the Kickstarter.  But don’t worry, it’ll be filmed, edited and released by the end of the year.

As for the perks, they have also slowed down.  Partially because waiting til the video shoot will give us some good opportunities to make the execution of the perks that much more awesome.  Also because we had a wait a bit on the t-shirt/sticker design.  Also because I have a LOT OF LIFE to figure out right now.  But they’re coming…

Ironically, the main source of the video delay is not one but TWO trips to Brazil.  I’ll be going down there for a friend’s wedding.  And our producer Kristen is going to the Rio Film Festival.  Jason, meanwhile, will be in New York inevitably wishing he were in Brazil.

ALRIGHT.  Hope to see you at one of the two shows.  Between my Brazil trip and the video shoot, we probably won’t play another show til after Thanksgiving, so you should check out the live show while you can!

-Jared y los Pájaros Sucios.

Legions!

We’re happy to announce that the Kickstarter project was a success, and our fundraising is done. Now begins the infinitely more fun process of making the music video. Right now we’re trying to select a weekend to shoot…We’ve also got a shit-ton of rewards to deliver to our 80 backers. For the next month, we’ll be making tons of funny thank you videos, recording an EP of all new material, designing t-shirts, stickers and posters, and even writing a few songs for our biggest supporters. So, much is on the way from the Dirty Birds.

Lessons learned from Kickstarter:

1. URGENCY – Sometimes the only way to do something is to NEED to do it. We’ve been pretty lackadaisical and distracted since moving to New York, but raising $7k gave us the impetus to get intense again (in a way we haven’t been since we finished recording the album). It’s good to be back.

2. WE HAVE AWESOME FANS – Maybe we don’t have a TON of them, but those of you who like and listen to our music are extremely generous and supportive, and I’m not just talking about dollars and cents. You helped out in a lot of different ways: making pledges of all shapes and sizes, writing emails on our behalf, posting links and videos all over the place…we basically saw an outpouring of support, and it was empowering, motivating, and at the same time humbling. We’re still a small-time band, and we’ve never relied on you guys more than we did to pay for this video. We’re deeply grateful to have the opportunity to make it.

3. DIRECT SOCIAL INTERACTION > SOCIAL NETWORKING – Despite being the aesthetic antithesis of all art forms, social networking sites like Facebook give a certain distributive power to underdog bands like us. It’s cool to be able to post stuff (like this blog) somewhere where people will stumble across it and presumably read it. That said, the best thing about using Kickstarter was that we talked directly to so many people who like our album and want us to make something of it. It turns out there are a lot more of those people than we ever realized, and we didn’t know because our fans are generally not super active on social networking sites. We need to find a new, better way to interact with y’all. So we’re gonna chill on the event invitations for a while and experiment with other methods.

4. BABY BOOMERS DIG THE DIRTY BIRDS – Just saying. There’s nothing wrong with that. Most of our influences are from the 60s and 70s anyway, so it makes sense.

5. VALENTINE’S DAY IS THE BEST CHOICE FOR “LEAD SINGLE.” – It just is.

Moving on.

NEXT GIG: Spike Hill in Williamsburg (no cover) – Saturday 9/25 at 8 PM – 184 Bedford Ave, right next to the Bedford L stop. Don’t want to brag, but this is an objective statement. In rehearsals lately we’ve been sounding like a new, better band. I’m not entirely sure what changed, but we’ve been focused, communicative, dynamic, and way more rock’n'roll. I can’t wait to play again and showcase this change. If you can make it out, it’s gonna be a really fun set, and c’mon, it’s FREE. It’s the least we can do after you guys gave us, ya know, $7,000.

Alright, legions. That’s about all. Thanks again for your support, we can’t wait to make this video!!!!!

-Jared

To our legions of followers,

We are SO CLOSE. Us Dirty Birds are really excited and anxious to see the Kickstarter project come to a successful close. As of this writing, we have $6,400, which is 91%! There are now 43 hours to go. If ever there was a time when a bunch of 5, 15, and 25 dollar pledges would push us forward, it’s now. And we would really love to have as many backers as possible, so don’t be shy about small contributions, THEY ARE HELPFUL.

I went ahead and made the first “hilarious YouTube thank you video” to give you guys a taste of the upcoming perks. To show our appreciation, we’re trying to take these seriously and make them legitimately fun for y’all. This one is for my freshman roommate Jake Muskat, who has always been a big supporter of my music, even back in the days when I was pretty damn wack. Not to mention, he’s a badass dude who strums guitars and traverses the nation selling fly kicks. So, without further ado, check out the Dopest Flow Ever.

Every shout-out video will be totally unique and tailored to the person who pledged. But I promise none of them will be boring. In fact, our YouTube channel is getting pretty damn entertaining these days. Just wait til there’s a legit Valentine’s Day video on there…

For the record, when this is over, I am looking forward to taking a break from my computer, from Facebook, YouTube, blogs, Twitter, Kickstarter…I’m hopefully gonna spend a week playing guitar, working on new songs in Prospect Park before it gets too cold. (And figuring out the t-shirt, sticker and poster designs…)

Thank you all so much for your help. What do you think, can we make it to 7k?

-Jared

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, watch this because it’s the greatest thing to ever happen.

Legions.

As of this writing, we’ve got $3,680 for the video with 9 days remaining. That’s a lot of damn money, even if we’ve got a ways to go to reach our goal. I’ve had some big revelations today and yesterday.

1. Y’all Rule. Seriously. The Dirty Birds may not yet have a big fanbase of screaming 13-year-olds (hence the video), but we do have some really awesome friends. I’ve seen a lot of generosity come in from all corners, and it’s been a really wonderful experience to see that kind of support.

2. Imperfect perks. There’s been a pretty clear lack of interest in the ringtones. Understood. You’re probably like, well my phone sucks and that won’t be none too easy. We probably should’ve chosen something more universal for $15, ’cause I know a lot of young people would be more interested in giving $15 if we had a more solid perk. Our response: we will add a sticker, and if you do have the capacity for the ringtones, there will be clever Dirty Birds rings, but we’re also including some new original Garageband compositions that will honestly be really fucking extreme, and everyone’s gonna think your phone is hot shit, whether it’s an iPhone 4 or some 8th grade Nokia thing. Just saying.

3. If we could do it again, we might have chosen a smaller goal. Don’t get me wrong, we chose $7,000 because that’s the budget we need to do the video as we’ve conceived it. Having a party scene AND flashbacks dictated that. Obviously we’ll try to cut costs, but there’s only so much you can do. That said, I don’t know if we’ll be able to get the 7k, and it would’ve been smarter to aim for 5k and try to go over. In the meantime, as we get closer to Sept. 17th, there might be a few donations by certain Saltiel family stuffed animals that bring us closer…we’ll see what happens. Not to be too transparent or anything…in case you were doubting, we’re rock stars.

Also, a friend commented that it was weird we weren’t offering our album as a perk. I figured..it’s online for free now, and most people who contribute have it anyway. I thought it would be a waste. But he has a point, so we’re adding a signed copy of the album to the $100 perk.

Finally, the concept is more or less finalized. It’s a concise narrative, follows the song pretty closely, a moderately adolescent melodrama played out by 20-somethings with a lot to lose and very little to gain. The tone is bitter, raw, confused, just like the song. Moral of the story is something we can ALL get on board with: breaking up sucks.

I’ll leave you with that. I have a new apartment and a lot of stuff to do. Life is mad crazy legions, for real.

-Jared

Legions,

In our first week since launching the Kickstarter project, we’ve raised $1,920, which is 27% of our goal! Make that $2,170, or 31%!!!  So, first of all, thank you to everyone who’s donated! As for perks, so far we’ve gotta write 2 songs (style/genre TBA), mail 3 posters, make 7 thank-you videos, send 8 T-shirts, give 12 people access to demos, and credit 14 people on the site. If we can reach our goal, these perks will keep us pretty busy for the next couple months.

But we’ve still got 23 days to go and about $5,000 dollars to raise. That’s a little daunting, but such is our ambition.

In other news, our first show of the fall will be at Spike Hill, Sept. 17th at 8 pm. NO COVER. We’re opening for the band Dead Heart Bloom. They’re remarkably generous, in that they’ve put up their entire discography on Bandcamp for free download. Like us, except we only have one album, and they have 6 LPs and EPs and a 7th one on the way next Tuesday. This should be a good show, we’ll be unveiling even more new songs.

Speaking of which, it’s probably time for me to reveal at least a little bit about the new songs, especially since a number of you are signing up to get the demos.  I still haven’t decided exactly which songs we’re going to record, or how many we’ll be able to do, but there are a few that I’m sure about.  For instance, those who came to the last couple shows heard a new tune called “The Holy Grail Blues.”  It’s a misleadingly straightforward blues-rock song with some surprising lyrics.  Another song you can expect to see on the list is “The Moon, Mary and Me.”  Eventually this song will be doused in gorgeous strings, but for the time being it’ll just be a duet between myself and Dave.

The majority of the new songs I’m writing have only been played for a couple people (or nobody), and I’ve been very private about the whole process.  Most of you would probably be surprised to know that at last count I’ve got 10 new songs which are for all intents and purposes complete.  I’ve got about 7 more that are in the works, and there are a bunch of songs that exist only as titles or ideas, which I haven’t begun and probably won’t for a little while.

Reader: “Wait a minute, Jared, are you saying that you’re writing a double album?”

No comment.

For better or worse, my songwriting has taken a mystical turn.  These are not pop songs, nor are they particularly upbeat.  There is also a good deal of connection between the songs.  The main failing of How the Cause Became the Cure was its musical and thematic inconsistency.  We sounded like 3 different bands on that record.  The next album (it definitely feels too early to call it that…) is going to be a lot different.  I’m dealing with just a few lyrical themes throughout these songs and basically approaching them from a couple different musical styles, which are nonetheless consistent and deliberate.  It’s actually all quite systematic, in a serendipitous way.

To give you a completely vague feel for the new stuff, here’s a random sampling of song titles: “Daddy,” “Dreamcatcher,” “The Road/Kicking Stones,” “The Devil’s Whistle,” “July 26th, 2010,” “Dogma,” “True Union.”  Apparently in the past couple years I’ve gotten really into the letter D…

I think that’s about all I’m ready to say at the moment.  But I couldn’t be more excited to get the ball rolling on the new stuff, even if I’m just making some home-recorded demos.  It’s kind of funny, ’cause meanwhile we’re still just beginning to really promote all these REALLY OLD songs.  Valentine’s Day, for instance, is now approaching its 7TH BIRTHDAY.

Think about that, and the fact that we’re finally going to make a music video, while you listen to the song in its third AND FINAL incarnation.

Peace out Legions!

-Jared

Legions,

I’m happy to announce that we have begun fundraising for our first ever music video. The song is Valentine’s Day and the director is Jason Saltiel. The amount of money we need to raise is $7,000. I know, sticker shock, right? Although truthfully, it’s not a very big budget for a music video. Think about the latest bad rap video you’ve seen…probably cost over a million dollars. And they probably spent a quarter of that money on outrageous catering. Our costs will be modest in comparison, but yes it’s still a lot of money. We have to rent a nice digital camera, pay for lights, insurance (a huge part of the cost), permits, locations, props, and yes, catering.

SO. Here’s the deal. If you’ve never encountered Kickstarter before, I can explain. Kickstarter provides a simple and easy platform for creative projects to raise relatively small amounts of money, relying on friends, fans, family, and the “Kickstarter community.” In exchange for donations (of virtually any size), supporters get rewards, chosen by the project creators. Here’s the clincher: supporters choose a donation amount and enter their credit card, but nobody is charged unless the full amount has been pledged by the project’s end date. In our case, we need $7,000 pledged by September 17th, 2010.

Check out our Kickstarter page here.

Needless to say, we’re a little nervous, but also really excited to make our first music video. We hope that the perks we’ve chosen will make it worth it for our legions of donors. I’ll tell you about some of our rewards, and then I’ll finally write some details about our video.

REWARDS (each successive level includes all of the above):

$5 – your name credited on this website
$15 – your name credited on this website, plus the super-fresh Dirty Birds ringtones download package – I made these a long time ago for fun, and I assure you they’re awesome
$25 – access to a secret site on Bandcamp with home-recorded demos for our next album – I’m still not sure how much we’ll flesh out these demos, but they’ll probably be pretty stripped, mostly just a way for people to keep up with the songs I’ve been writing and get a feel for future Dirty Birds material.  Either way, I’m looking forward to revealing some new music to everyone (who donates $25).
$50 – we’ll mail you a Dirty Birds t-shirt. Hopefully we’ll get the design done in the next week or two so we can post an image.
$100 – we’ll record a hilarious, personalized thank you video and post it on YouTube. It might be something we’ll do after practice, or during downtime on the video shoot. Regardless, you can rest assured that you will be immortalized in an excellent way.
$200 – we’ll mail you a signed Dirty Birds poster – surprisingly expensive, hence the $200 donation – when we finish this design, we’ll post that image as well
$500 – we will write and record a song about you in any style or genre of your choosing. But we are not prostituting ourselves, so don’t expect to dictate the exact content of the song. And don’t expect it to be serious and heartfelt, it will be funny, and you’ll love it.
$1000 – go on a date with the Dirty Bird of your choosing on Valentine’s Day 2011 – NYC only, airfare not included, quality of date not guaranteed, especially if you choose Dave

As for the video, it will be directed by my brother Jason. He and I have been hashing out the details of this concept for many months, meeting at our favorite bar for popcorn and pitchers of Bud, and we’ve finally figured out what we really want to see onscreen. Entering the realm of fiction…It’ll take place on or around Valentine’s Day, at a party where the Dirty Birds are the house band. The principle drama will be a somewhat implied love triangle between myself, my recent ex-girlfriend, and a guy who’s come to the party with her. As I gradually figure out the situation (while I’m stuck performing the song), we cut to flashbacks of our relationship and, eventually, the moment of our breakup. Finally the guy and the girl leave the party…”What does it matter, it’s over anyway.” Meanwhile, we’ll have plenty of footage of Greg, Dave and Dustin rocking out on the song, looking…what’s the word?…oh yeah, EXTREME. Casting will begin soon.

The video’s producer is Kristen Konvitz, whose other current project is the feature adaptation of Lauren Wolkstein’s 2009 short film Cigarette Candy, which won the jury prize at the South by Southwest Film Festival. We’re excited to have Kristen onboard to help us deal with the endless logistics and make this video as awesome as possible.

I guess that’s all, hope that was helpful in explaining the project. If you can help out, or if you’re tempted by the various perks, please visit our Kickstarter page and pledge. We’ll only be able to make this video with your help!

Thanks a lot legions, talk to you soon.

-Jared