Wednesday night I had the good fortune of seeing Broken Social Scene live at the Byham Theater downtown. Let me rephrase – I had quite a few “good fortunes” that night. Explanation. I like Broken Social Scene a lot. They’re an interesting band and their album You Forgot It In People pretty much turned my brain into mush way back when. I’d never heard anything like that. It was a really good show and I enjoyed myself, saw some friends, etc etc. Now slow down there, Blake – I know what you’re thinking: “But Jimbo, this post isn’t entitled “Broken Social Scene Live Review In Pittsburgh”. What are these shenanigans? I hate shenanigans, blah blah blah.” (That’s my highly accurate impression of Blake). Well here it is – best part of Wednesday night was catching The Wooden Birds.

The Wooden Birds/ Believe in Love (Montague St. Version)
The Wooden Birds/ False Alarm

Now you may disagree with me because you love BSS. That’s fine. That was just a slick lead into this post. Get over it. Obviously BSS was great, but I was suprised and excited to see The Wooden Birds on the bill as special guests. Now listening to the mp3s above might give you that deja vu feeling. The main guy in The Wooden Birds is the prolific Andrew Kenny from lo-fi favorites American Analog Set that were pretty popular in the indie world not so long ago. AmAnSet had some stellar releases- my favorite? – Know By Heart from 2001 (that long ago? Cripes!) Their last release was in 2005 and since that time Kenny has been working on several side projects. Last year he released an amazing album entitled Magnolia under the moniker The Wooden Birds and the rest is history. Beautiful melodies, laid back guitars and atypical percussion fill the album with a warmth and resonance keeps me coming back to the W section of my record collection. Now you might say “Well that album came out a while ago? Why are you posting about it now?” and I might say “Hey this is my blog so pipe down a bit, Dad”. But really folks, last night just reminded me of how great the band is, how great that album is, and how very few people in the crowd seemed to know The Wooden Birds , which is an incredible shame. I got to speak with Andrew Kenny (thanks Matt for leading the charge) Wednesday night and his guitar player (Leslie Sisson) quipped how they were “the best kept secret in Rock and Roll”. Amen, sister. Kenny was more than friendly as we discussed the few old school AmAnSet tunes they played, my autographed Magnolia vinyl from Insound, and their new album on the way. Another fun fact? Matt Pond PA rounded out their live crew playing some very nice rhythm guitar.

Enjoy the mp3s above and check out their official site, myspace, and a nice video of “Hometown Fantasy” chock full of road diary footage. Oh yeah. You can download a free EP exclusively from Insound, too!

The Wooden Birds – Hometown Fantasy from The Wooden Birds on Vimeo.

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