The Wind-up Birds: The Mild Awards

The Mild Awards by the Wind-up Birds

 

Time to put my favorite discovery of 2012 on your radars again. The Wind-up Birds have a new single out (note to other bands: you see? Two songs is a single, not an EP): “The Mild Awards” b/w “Some Gimmicks for You”. The two songs together form a set piece, commenting on the carefully calculated path toward mediocrity that so many artists seem to take in pursuit of attention and validation. Oh yeah, and the songs sound great, “The Mild Awards” punctuated with grand horns while “Some Gimmicks for You” employs some new wave pop keys.

Not to mention the video put together for “The Mild Awards” which had me not just LOLing but actually laughing out loud.

 

 

Pick up the single through the Wind-up Birds’ Bandcamp site in either digital download or limited-edition 7″ vinyl (you know you want cover puppy Royston in your collection).

 

The Wind-up Birds Official Website

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Video: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Fishin’ in the Dark

I put this song on my prom mix tape in 1992, sandwiched between Miracle (Bon Jovi) and Veronica (Elvis Costello). All of which kind of sums up me, age seventeen, pretty neatly.

Also in the mix: A lot of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Red Hot Chili Peppers, leavened by Edie Brickell, Bruce Springsteen, Depeche Mode, Aerosmith, Queen, The Spin Doctors, Richard Marx, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and, most baffling to me now, The Beach Boys.

All I can say is, I’m surprised there’s only one country song on the tape.

 

 
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band official website