There have been moments in the last three and a half years I have beaten my head against an invisible brick wall, but always, just around the corner is a little moment of genius. Here, two of the most talented folks I’ve stumbled across accidentally combine in two minutes of comedy. Jon of the Atom (Dead Canaries, America) makes a film with a soundtrack courtesy of James Redmond (Dirty Ticket, UK). Goes to show that people aren’t so different wherever you go, and even beating your head against invisible brick walls is sometimes worth it.

Download DEAD CANARIES

GOLDEN SOUNDS and MODERN DAY CARPETBAGGER

at http://cozyhomerecords.com/08/artists/dead-canaries/

for free

Jon of the Atom and his travelling band of musical troubadours return like migrating free-form birds with two brand new albums – ‘Golden Sounds’ a year-long continuation of the upwards musical trajectory and an epically wretched record to make, and ‘Modern Day Carpetbagger’ apparently written and recorded over ‘a long weekend reading John Wilmot’. As always I go into these recordings with my eyes closed, fully expecting the unexpected from the ‘bastard child of Beck and Brian Wilson.’

This adventure began some two years ago when Dead Canaries burst into being with the acclaimed collaborative ‘Critical Mass…’ Throughout 2008, its follow up ‘Something Else’ accidentally fell together, fusing disparate songs and sounds from different internal/external places and passing players. The question after the dust had settled from ‘Something Else’ and it became clear that something of an inadvertent masterpiece had emerged from months of recording, was… where the fuck could Dead Canaries possibly go from there?

Thankfully, this is Jon of the Atom we are talking about. Sometime in 2009 he upped sticks, left his native Ithaca and jumped on a box-car to Louisiana, where he assembled a new team of singers and musicians to help realise what we now hear as the first half of these two recordings – the immense ‘Golden Sounds’. I first heard a rough demo of this record in the autumn while Jon wrestled with band conflicts and eventually decided that he ‘hated it’ and went back to the drawing board. This early version of the record was actually pretty great… lots of backwards stuff, the same experimental take on traditional folk-pop songs from the two previous records, and random instruments galore sounding darkly golden in nature. Four months later it is redone and as usual he was right to redo it. This version of ‘Golden Sounds’ is twice as big and twice as darkly golden, the songs more intricate and ironically even more expansive, an adventure of a record that takes you by the hand and leads you underground where notes blow triumphant and voices sing in claustrophobic harmony, where freaky rolling, clunking instrumentals bind simply brilliant songs together, and anything becomes possible. Tracks like ‘Prince Edward Island’, ‘Seven Bell Peppers in a Row’ or ‘It Wasn’t Calm’ shows a maturity of song-writing, the sound of someone who knows exactly what he is doing and is doing it with technically ease. There is order in this chaos – dark and mysterious one moment, bright and gentle the next, ‘Golden Sounds’ is the kind of record that only Dead Canaries can make. Jon himself hinted at perhaps some sort of finality when he described these two records as his ‘Abbey Road’ and ‘Let It Be’, but when great things like this are going on, and when you think the boundaries can’t be pushed any further, he does it again. I guess we can only hope he keeps doing it.

‘Modern Day Carpetbagger’  suggests that he will. Where ‘Golden Sounds’ seems carefully planned and deliberate in its melodic head-fuckery, this second helping of Dead Canaries is much looser and chaotic in the way it plays out. Truthfully my iPod screen is fucked so there is no way of me telling which songs I’m listening to. One of the downsides of this is that after ‘Hunting of the Bilge Rat’ on ‘Golden Sounds’, and due to the fact that so many songs instrumentally melt into each other, I’m unable to tell where one record ends and the other begins. This is particularly challenging when it comes to writing a review. However…

It has its pluses. For a start, play these records side by side start to finish and they sound exactly like a double-album should sound. ‘Modern Day Carpetbagger’ may have been recorded in a long weekend (I find it difficult to believe that anyone could record something so emotionally potent with such technical proficiency in such a short space of time), but in many ways it is ‘Golden Sounds’ equal. ‘Karl Marx Lives In Lafayette Louisiana’ for example, is my favourite song on the two records, gear-shifting like The Beatles and punching like The Kinks. Plus anyone who heard Jane Gilmore sing ‘Honey Pie’ on the White (Christmas) Album will be pleased to hear it find a home here. Just to clarify – we’re talking about my least favourite Beatles song, a track that until now I’ve not been able to listen to without my toes squirming from the ends of my feet to hide in old brown shoes. The Fink/Gilmore and Fink/Saul vocal combinations are as creatively special as ever and from time to time on both records you hear them materialise (the acapella ‘Prince Edward Island’ for example is a stroke of absolute genius, and the reworked version of ‘Low Down Adela’ is as mighty as anything Jon has cooked up previously). The liner notes suggest that there are many other singers, musicians and songwriters at work here, but they rightly come and go like whispering ghosts, plucking things, wailing things, chiming things. What these things are and who does what is all just part of the collective conundrum that is a global orchestra of participants who are bewildered to be along for the ride, the professor conducting via satellite link-up from his basement laboratory, winking back over his shoulder at us the audience, while simultaneously bellowing ‘Clarinets blow! Girls sing! Funny little percussion thing rattle! Horns explode! Drum roll! Catchy piano melody kinda noodle along! Uke plink! Guitars strum! Here, let me throw you some weird guy talking about whale song being sent into space…’

Some records you have to tear from the imagination into reality (Golden Sounds) and some fall out like they were meant to be (Modern Day Carpetbagger). Both are great records… you should give them a try.

Jon of the Atom kindly takes time out from his action-filled secret life as a musical superhero and tells us all about the latest great offering from DEAD CANARIES – “Something Else” (FREE to download from your cheap and spookily cheerful QUIXODELIC RECORD STORE above).

The lion’s share of this album was down when I decided to write and record a song a day, hoping that after a couple months, I’d have enough songs to point a stick at.  I was in a lull.  I had started I Do Not Currently Own A Spaniard against my will, but was glad I had done it, however the comfort of finishing Critical Mass was gone.  So I had nothing to write and no comfort in that.  Something Else also contains a couple orphan songs that were too good to let go of.  Like “Song For #6” may have been the first song.  The title came from the fact that there is always something else.  This album is no exception to the fact that I have a muse and cannot escape from writing about her; it is in fact something else.  Even Critical Mass was done in an effort to not write about her. 

1. Going For A Ride Today- This song was much longer, but it bugged me.  I cut it down after a fall out with the person it was about.  It works better and builds up the cycling element.  Also, there were 2 other songs that were based around Elvis and Roy Orbison that were cut, leaving “Black Hole” to sound out of place!  Go discord!
2. My Pump Caught In My Trouser Leg- A part of the original Going from a Ride that sounded better on it’s own, and the segue is a calliope from Yankee Stadium, the last Boston/ New York game in the old stadium.  Not an important fact, just that’s where it’s from.
3. Something Else- A friend called during recording of one of the clarinets, and the song starts with her message.  The faulty bass wiring can be heard through out, but it sounds good.  The opening verses lyrics were recorded at Bus Stop Studio in Liverpool NY.  The song is little more than it sounds.  It’s to the point.  I was told that everyone has this moment about someone.  Dan came and put down the drums last minute and made the song.
4. Shortest Hour of the Day- This was a cover of a song written by Paul Burnout and Smally Wheelies, however, I had the song so long that I for got to note that!  I don’t think they’d mind.  The lovely Chelsea Hogan put her pipes on this one, thank god.  It would be a different song.  This was another orphan that needed a proper home.
5. Song For #6- The music for this song was written why watching The Prisoner so I named it for #6.  My myspace said, “Who is #1” for a while, but that means something else these days (there it was again!).  The lyrics were inspired by Smally’s original try at writing lyrics for the song.  He ended up having written the first line, then I took over by placing photos in place of paintings and something else took over.
6. Kim’s Unfinished Ride Home- A woman from Maine demanded, “Write a song for me!” and I did.  I don’t think she ever heard it.  It took me awhile to decide it was in fact finished, but the title meant something else too.  There’s a Simpsons quote at the end of the song, and that’s a clue as to what the title means.
7. Doli Lemon- Rob Levy wrote a song we called Doli Lemon, it was really titled Dilemma, and so I wrote a song that was supposed to be about the Doli Lemon, only I ended up not liking it so much rather quickly.  Meghan Geiss recorded the Drums around the time of The New Wave Dirt’s Elephant’s Tap Dance Recital, so I wrote a new song around them.  I prefer this one, but time will tell. 
8. Something- This song was I believe the official first for Something Else.  I recorded into a dictation machine from the 70’s and wrote it down later.  I didn’t write the last line but Katie (beautiful voice heard on this song) pointed out that it sounded like “Plastic Jesus” so she wrote the last line.  This might be the best song I ever written.  It is about moving on and being positive.
9. Nothing Else- Conversely, this is the regression into old habits.  This song was inspired by, but not about, riding passed a friend’s home and ringing my imaginary bicycle bell.  I had the music from “My Pump Caught…” and thought I’d write the song over that, but forgot that the music was sad and a bit unpleasant, the improvised lyrics, recorded on my camera while I recorded the main guitar, are unpleasant as well.
10. Vindaloo Was Her Name- Vindaloo has become my favorite Indian food and there is a song by the Pussy Willows that they sing, “Vindaloo was her name, she will never dance again”.  I had a crazy dream that I would learn to play the oboe well enough to put down a lead part, but luckily gifted saxophonist (Colin Gordon) was right next door one day and he did it for me.
11. Never Tinker With The Gear Shifter- was done to put in an apothecary box and when you opened a drawer it played.  Charity Burger asked me to create music for her art, it fit in the box pretty well.
12. Tim’s Banjo Story- Tim Kotch asked me to work on a song that he said he might not use.  I finished it, he didn’t want it.  Right before I finished Something Else Tim asked for the song, and it was interweaved in the other songs, so I just made a new version for The Hoborchestra.
13. How & When- A Tim Kotch song, one of my favorites, if I had to choose, which I can’t!  Katie Saul again sings and Dan finished it up for me.
14. Nothing- This song was on my enemies list for most of the production, I’m not sure if I like it even now.  I had a dream that I was in a hospital bed and I was waking up and there was a Beatles song playing, not a real Beatles song, but John Lennon was singing.  Then George came on and the music dropped out and his voice got really echo-y, like Paul in “Lovely Rita” and George sang “less stuff from the stores, less stuff for your drawers.” 
15. Who Knew? – Total frustration over wanting and hoping.  Longing and pining.  I was trying to write a Townshend, but the only the Who-ish about this song is the title.
16. Black Hole- I wrote this song in 1996 and the original out version of this album it worked better, but it was the perfect ending and couldn’t be compromised by bullshit.  The refrain at the end is “Something Else” with out the vocals, fuzz bass or noise.  If I had known…

DEAD CANARIES

Something Else

DOWNLOAD IT FROM THE QUIXODELIC RECORD STORE FOR FREE: here

Full tracklisting:

1 Going For A Ride

2 The Pump Got Caught In My Trouser Leg

3 Something Else

4 The Shortest Hour of the Day

5 Song For #6

6 Kim’s Unfinished Ride Home

7 Doli Lemon

8 Something

9 Nothing Else

10Vindaloo Was Her Name

11 Don’t Mess With The Gear Box So Far From Home

12 Tim’s Bajo Story

13 The Hoborchestra’s How & When

14 Nothing

15 Who Knew?

16 Black Hole

(C) + (P) Dead Canaries

A Cozy Home Record, 2009

This much anticipated follow-up to 2008’s brilliant “Critical Mass: Flying Things Vs. Crawling Things” is available to download from today from our little musical curiosity shop. “Something Else” has been available for a couple of months over at Cozy Home Records, but we know how pressed for time your average surfer-collector is, and this record is that great that we collectively decided to host it here as well. I’ll save babbling on about it here and instead just post a review I wrote a while back for a magazine we just couldn’t get off the ground:

I guess you’d have to live with and probably even sleep with the new offering from Dead Canaries for a month before passing serious judgement on it. But as it happens I don’t have a month, and even if I did I want so badly to stand in its corner and shout about how great it is after only a handful of listens, that I don’t think I could wait that long. It was with the same excitement that I bought the long-awaited second Stone Roses album that I eagerly followed the breadcrumbs back to the Cozy Home record store where the second Dead Canaries record “Something Else” was waiting for free download. It never even crossed my mind that I’d be as disappointed as I was when I first heard “The Second Coming”, simply because Jon of the Atom and his musical friends seem to have been chemically inoculated from making a bad record. From The New Wave Dirt to JOTA solo projects and onto last year’s critically-acclaimed underground Dead Canaries debut “Critical Mass: Flying Things Vs. Crawling Things”, it’s been an upwards audio trajectory, conversely going irretrievably deeper into the rabbit hole of musical possibility. Whoever said that there is nowhere original for guitar music to go has obviously not been fortunate enough to stumble over the same  aforementioned breadcrumbs.

Out Now!

The long awaited follow-up to 2008’s “Critical Mass: Flying Things Vs. Crawling Things”, Jon of the Atom leads an ensemble cast of lo-fi experimentalists on the cool as fuck audio adventure of “Something Else” - jangling toy keys, drawled harmonies, kicking live drums, and exploratory soundscapes. A little bit of something else for everyone for FREE download over at www.cozyhomerecords.com

Who are, or what is, Dead Canaries? More, and less, than a band, Dead Canaries is a multi-musician project. “Anyone is welcome to contribute anything,” was Jonathon Fink’s steering philosophy. Critical Mass: Flying Things Vs. Crawling Things is a transatlantic collaboration between Fink of Jon of the Atom, Smally the Windmill Chaser (Steven Small of The Wheelies and captain of The Daydream Generation), Chelsea Hogan (of Dirty Spoons w/Fink), Jane Gilmore, Meghan Geiss (of New Wave Dirt w/Fink), Aldonza Lorenzo, Linzi (Mrs. Smally), Old Kinderhook, Dan Pardee (of Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned), and Tim Kotch (also of Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned). I’m not entirely sure whether or not any two artists (the Smally’s excluded) were in the same room at the same time during the recording process, but with Fink at the helm the collaboration has resulted in an intriguing, intelligent, and downright beautiful 53 minutes of surprising melodic juxtapositions and richly textured layers of sound.

The album opens with the songs for flying things, which have an airy, layered, light feel about them – full of bells and intricate guitar work that jingles like twinkling stars or wind up music boxes. On repeated listenings, some of the songs of flight have a slight Eastern, opium den, trippy feel. After a brief, musical intermission that explores inanimate and immobile objects, Critical Mass takes the listener into the world of crawling things, where the bells and melodies of the flying things’ songs give way to the click-clacking sounds of clocks and heavier, more prominent guitar work, grounding the latter set of songs in the territory of crawling things on time-bound terra firma. The record is made whole with a “Song for the Swimmers,” for the aquatic among us, and then it comes full circle closing with “Norman & the Dragonfly,” a tune that unites flying things with crawling things.Critical Mass is deeply visual, as though it was composed as a film score. It also causes a bit of acute synesthesia in its listeners – sounds have colors, moods, and even actions associated with them. “Crows Over King Street” feels like what a scene of the regal black birds circling and perching on a ledge at the moment of someone’s final breath would sound like. Maybe it’s the eerie addition of what sounds like a Theremin that brings on a somber tone – or it could just be my overactive imagination. “Lamentations of a Penguin” is a lovely little waltz of a song that easily lends itself to visions of the flightless birds bemoaning their condition. It’s sad and beautiful like a waltz can be.The crawling things have their own visual soundtrack too. “The Spider’s Song” is an intricate piece that weaves a web of classic rock, with guitar work that sounds like it could be a lost track from an early Neil Young album. “It’s a Crab’s Life” evokes the scurrying about of a crab, at first peaceful and plodding about its domain then ending in a mad dash to outrun a trapper and avoid becoming dinner. Does the crab win? You’ll have to listen and decide for yourself.Other exciting tracks for me include “Tree Sloth Finding Food” and “Moths At the Bug Zapper,” even though they are completely different. “Tree Sloth” is a mildly cacophonous spoken word piece that briefly calls to mind that “Sunscreen” spoken word/song that Baz Luhrmann performed a while back blended with Mark Renton’s “Choose Life” monologue from Trainspotting (probably because the selected text was read by Small, a Scotsman). I’m not going to ruin the coolness or fun of the song here by revealing what is being read in the background. Again, you have to listen and learn.Addendum: Since writing this review, I have developed a ridiculous fondness for “Crickets Chirping (Thank My Stars),” a lovely little waltzy, country-psychedelic tune if such a genre exists. Actually, that’s the rub — the whole album is one lovely work altogether that makes picking out single songs sort of like choosing your favorite kitten in a litter.Finally, “Moths At the Bug Zapper” is another tune that makes use of the basic waltz timing, but here it is a love song instead of a lamentation. Chicks will dig this tune, and college radio stations would probably choose it as the first single (though “Crickets Chirping” and “The Spider’s Song” are also singles contenders). “Moths” is pure loveliness.One of my favorite aspects of Critical Mass is that a lot of thought was put into song titles, the order of the songs, and the overall structure of the record. Critical Mass is a whole work, and, similar to a novel in its narrative structure, it offers the listener a sense of resolve to record’s tension.The album is a complex, exciting, and bold musical experiment. Sure it can be enjoyed casually while doing stuff, but it shines when you take the time to sit back and actively listen. The layers begin to shift, and the lightly fuzzy psychedelic tone gives way to thoughtful vocals. The more I listen, the more I hear, and the more I enjoy Critical Mass: Flying Things Vs. Crawling Things.Written by Jonathon Fink, Tim Kotch, Robert Levy, Steven Small, and Brian Wilson, Critical Mass: Flying Things Vs. Crawling Things can be filed under folk/psychedelic/rock/wonderfully other worldly.Available for FREE download, so get clicking.Tara Nicole Brown

Happy days for the Daydream Underground - together with our good friends at Cozy Home Records, we have great pleasure in introducing the latest manifestation of the mad musical scientist that is Jon of the Atom, in the form of DEAD CANARIES “Critical Mass: Flying Things Vs Crawling Things”. This truly extraordinary aural adventure that we’ve been talking about for what seems like a lifetime can be downloaded from the dgRECORDS link at the top of this page for FREE.

You know what to do

The metamorphosis from indie-rock to something resembling a mad musical scientist can be carefully traced from the kooky folk of early Jon Of The Atom albums, through the honed indie-rock of the brilliant New Wave Dirt album “The Apple” (Cozy Home 2006), into someone who sounds like he is inventing rather than writing songs, with sounds that would have turned Brian Wilson’s head circa 1967, organically insane and melodically marvellous.

So being the curious pioneering community that we are, I figured it was about time that we worked out what the fuck has actually happened here. Who are Dead Canaries? Where did This Is Not Jon Of The Atom go? And Jon Of The Atom too for that matter? What does it all mean and where the fuck is he going next? Fortunately he not only replied to the following six question interview, but we got a lot more than we bargained for with a copy of the latest Dead Canaries EP \u0026quot;Thanks For Nothing You Gutless Prima Donna\u0026quot; which you can download here for FREE:1 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NEW WAVE DIRT AND JON OF THE ATOM?Jon of the Atom is me. I started using the name Jon of the Atom when I was watching the movie Ed Wood every night for about a year. It comes from “Bride of the Monster” origanally titled “Bride of the Atom”. I’m not gone, but I the style of recording, much like Ed’s directing style, of one take & then move on is something I’m no longer doing. I was 17 when Jon of the Atom became my handle & I felt like I just needed something else. The New Wave Dirt was a band with Meghan Geiss that was proving to be more frustrating then fulfilling, so I ended that.2 WHO OR WHAT ARE DEAD CANARIES? WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM?Dead Canaries came about when I was riding my bike in the summer of 06. There were about 20 or 30 dead, what I’m told are yellow finches, but I maintain that they were canaries, on the side of RT. 20 in New York. I was listening to Elizabeth Cotton & Woody Guthrie as I rode & was thinking about mining. Everyone out of the mine! As for who are Dead Canaries, it’s any one that I can wrangle in to playing on these albums.3 CRITICAL MASS HAS BEEN RECEIVING A LOT OF POSITIVE ATTENTION – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT ALBUM NOW?I feel like it’s done, brought to temperature & ready for consumption by the masses & boy, is it tasty!4 FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD YOUR MUSIC BEFORE HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND? WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES ETC?My favorite descriptions would be Radiohead singing Motown, or Brian Wilson & Beck’s bastard child. Others in that list of potential parents would be: woody Guthrie, Elizabeth Cotton, Syd Barrett, nirvana, social discomfort, anything involving Robert Levy & Smally Wheelies makes it’s way into my sub conscience as well as playing music with Meghan geiss for the past decade. belle & Sebastian, the beatles, Alexander Spence, ween, neutral milk hotel, the microphones, Tim Kotch. The kids in the hall & the constant struggle to get laid. This list goes on & on. Oxygen has also been important influence in my musical life.5 THANKS FOR NOTHING – TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT – WHAT’S IT ABOUT? YOU’RE GIVING IT AWAY AS A FREE DOWNLOAD, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT WHETHER MUSIC SHOULD BE FREE OR COST MONEY?First, yes I think music should be free. Thanks for nothing is & was not intended to have a physical form, but for me if there is music I really love I like having the album to hold & explore it. If there is music you are content to not have the album, why pay for it. & If your happy with shitty mp3’s that sound like they are coming out of a pop can, good for you.Thanks for nothing -the title came from someone being very upset with me. That was a comment he left me. I thought it was great & this music is just to air some grievances I have for someone that will not speak to me. This shit weighs me down so I needed to get it out some how. These songs have been kicking around in my head for a while.6 WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS FOR JOTA, DEAD CANARIES ETC.?ead Canaries perfume. Lingerie. An E True Hollywood Story. Scented toiletries. A feature leangth musical based off Franz Kafka. Sex with famous people. Maybe one day a physical band that plays shows & tours, but that ones just cloud talk.

DEAD CANARIES – Thanks For Nothing You Freak Out Prima Donna EP

download for free from here