Saturday, December 8, 2007

Birdsongs of the Mezoic - Pyroclastics

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic began as a side project by Roger Miller and Martin Swope who were members of the Boston band Mission of Burma. They were joined by Rick Scot and Erik Lindgren for their debut recording, a self-titled EP, in 1983. With Mission of Burma dissolving at about this time, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic became a full-time band.

With Pyroclastics, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic returned somewhat to its roots. The music is hard to categorize being all instrumental with guitar, keys and alot of atonal sax, owing more to fusion jazz than straight rock. It is improvisational sounding with lots of strange sounds that can almost distract from the main themes. The songs tend to be rather short and range from some fairly hard stuff with funky grooves to the theme from the Simpsons.

Its signature sound -- pulsing keyboards, jagged harmonies, weird time signatures, slash-and-burn guitar -- is back stronger than ever; "Shortwave Longride" and "Pleasure Island" would both have sounded more or less at home on Magnetic Flip (except for the presence of Ken Field’s saxophone). And the band's hilarious rendition of the theme from The Simpsons is a wry look backwards as well, a reminder of the arrangement of the Rocky and Bullwinkle theme on their first album. Field has managed to insinuate himself so seamlessly into the Birdsongs sound by this point that while his saxophone lines do alter it noticeably, they do so subtly and from the inside -- note, in particular, the subtle jazz flavoring he gives to "Tyronglaea II" (otherwise an archetypal piece of old-fashioned Mesozoicism). The band also takes another run at Brian Eno’s "Sombre Reptiles" (a piece they had tackled in an unreleased recording from 1983) and comes up with a surprisingly gentle rendition of Brian Wilson's hymn-like "Our Prayer." Pyroclastics definitely marks a step forward for this band, but it remains rooted in its old strengths. Recommended for the musically daring.

1. Shortwave Longride 2. Pleasure Island 3. I'm A Pterodactyl 4. Why Not Circulate
5. Sled 6. The Simpsons 7. Tyronglaea II 8. Papercutstone 9. Sombre Reptiles
10. Nothing But Trouble 11. Tomorrow Never Came 12. Our Prayer

pyro

8 comments:

Sun Flower said...

This album is quite good. It was the first I had head without Roger Miller (no, not that one). The tone without Miller, to me is a bit less harsh, and very palatable. The majority of the original songs here are inventive and creative, taking unexpected turns rhythmically, melodicly, and tonally. And each piece is completely unique.

Oldsmobile A/C compressors
orange county mortgage

MCA said...

Here is the information I found: Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic
Roger Miller of Mission of Burma

"Classical music-punk-jazz-car-wreck." - Jim Sullivan / Boston Globe

"Half of the hardest rock quartet in the world." - NY Times

Michael Bierylo - guitar / percussion
Erik Lindgren - synthesizer / rhythm
Roger Miller - piano / percussion
Rick Scott - General / percussion

To support the release of Dawn Of cycads, a founding member Roger Miller (Mission of Burma) is touring with the group in the scene where Ken member.

shamballa braceletspersian rugs

Sange said...

Passages Malibu Bookgun safes1/2

Sange said...

An English professior wrote the words, “Woman withour her man is nothing” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.
The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”
The women wrote: “Woman! Without her,man is nothing.”
website design priceForum Link Building scam2/2

Sange said...

A little boy bought a cricket by money that his par¬ents gave him.
In the arithmetic hour, the teacher asked him:
- Your father gave you six cents. Your mother gave you four cents. How many cents do you have now?
- Teacher, I have a cricket now - Answered the boy.
organic noniclaw foot tub shower3/2

Sange said...

A young poet came to the magazine editorial office and said to the editor:
- I'm sorry! I made a mistake and sent you the foodstuff bill instead of my poem.
-I thought it was a poem in modernistic language and sent it to the printing house - replied the editor.

dublin hotelAnniversaire princesse1/3

Sange said...

Teacher: Who helped you to draw this map, Jack?
Jack: Nobody, sir.
Teacher: Didn’t your brother help you?
Jack: No, sir. He drew it all himseil.


celebrity photosminneapolis flowers2/3

Luckyluke said...

A local community college professor decided to fight back. “The price of books for our students is just getting higher and higher and, combined with the rising cost of tuition, it’s killing these kids,” said Peter Jason, Ph.D. “Remember, students are one of the poorest groups of people in America. Almost half of them have at least one part-time job. In fact, one of my students has three jobs.city dealsWholesale Prom Dresses

Related Posts with Thumbnails