Campfires and Battlefields, apart from being pretty much the only commenter on this site who isn’t an out-of-control internet freak , is one of my most consistent musical scouts.  I don’t get an awful lot of emails from him recommending bands, but they are always, without fail, worth paying attention to (Samantha Crain, Samamidon, Felice Brothers – actually, reading that, what the fuck am I doing writing this?  I feel shamed).

Anyway, he recently put me onto a band called the Mimicking Birds, who are creating something of a fuss around the Blogosphere at the moment, seeing as Modest Mouse recently plucked them from nowhere to support them on tour.  ‘Who?’ we all said at once. They’re actually signed to Glacial Pace, the label run by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock, but apart from that there’s not much I can tell you.

Nate Lacy, whose project this is, is from Portland in Oregon.  Yes, another one from Portland, Oregon.  I think they must have musical greenhouses hidden in the hills around that bloody city, secretly breeding some sort of indie-folk master race, because fucking hell if there isn’t some amazing music coming out of that part of the world.  Even now that it’s become a cliche, they’re still at it.  I want to move to Portland (as if they needed another record label specialising in agit-folk).

Anyway, this stuff is a kind of thick, comforting broth, rendered friendly and contemplative by the use of spoken word intros (in the case of New Doomsdays) or samples of the sea breaking on the shore.  This makes the music sound like an evening in on the Oregon coast on a misty, rainy afternoon in the Autumn.  I know that’s an overly flowery analogy, but that sort of stuff really does take away the urgency from music, and ground it in something altogether stiller and more domestic.

It’s still mysterious though.  The high, harmonised vocals are quite ghostly, and the plucked guitar rolls gently through the songs, adding to that sense of warmth.  It’s like seeing a ghost, but one of a loved family member which for some reason you find more comforting than scary.

The quality of the music aside, it’s really reassuring to see people like Isaac Brock doing things like this.  It reminds you that a lot of people at the top of the industry really are still music fans.  In this jumpy era of lawsuit and obituary it’s nice to be reminded of that.

Mimicking Birds – New Doomsdays

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Mimicking Birds – Home & Somewhere Else

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