Weird Owl - Build Your Beast A Fire

WEIRD OWL, the Brooklyn band that creates music by "searching out the convergence of imagination, poetry and sound," will release its sophomore album Build Your Beast A Fire on July 26 via Tee Pee Records.  The follow up to the band's 2009 debut Ever the Silver Chord be Loosed was recorded at Verdant Studio in Vermont with Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Witch, Sonic Youth) and The Drawing Room in Kingston, NY with Bishop Allen's Justin Rice.

"'Build Your Beast a Fire' represents Weird Owl in its most structured and melodic incarnation yet," commented vocalist / guitarist Trevor Tyrrell.  "The album is part magical, part scientific; part futuristic, part ancient; part muscular, part psychological; part heavenly and part terrestrial.  It dwells perfectly in a universe of its own creation".

WEIRD OWL's sound comes from several ages at once.  Most obviously, the band is rooted in 60's psychedelia, but there's also a strong surge of 70's rock pushing through much its music.  Influences of blues and Americana can be found in the slide guitar playing and yet there are heavy songs throbbing with reverb-drenched guitar, but still possessing a Crazy Horse-like back-to-the-land feel.  The vocals also bring to mind Neil Young's singular yelp, cutting nasally and angularly through the mix.  Hypnotic and spell binding, the band presents a truly rich, spiritually-minded psychedelic experience; this is pastoral-prog, where mood trumps volume.  First formed in 2004, WEIRD OWL crafts sonic mindscapes inspired by legendary acts such as the 13th Floor Elevators and given life through a voice closer to the odd clarity of mid-era Pink Floyd mixed with the synthesized textures of The Flaming Lips.  The band's sound has been excellently referred to as "a sonic mind fog."            

    The track listing for WEIRD OWL's Build Your Beast a Fire is as follows:

    1.) No Time Nor No Space

    2.) Up From the Root

    3.) Stral Proj

    4.) Tiny Sleeping Animals

    5.) Mirrors in the Mud

    6.) Parallax Eyes

    7.) Build Your Beast a Fire II

    8.) Saucer-Shaped Shadow

    9.) Skin the Dawn

   10.) Two-Headed Brother

   11.) Horn Antler Tusk

   12.) Mountains on Top of Buried Stars

   13.) Space Bolero

   14.) What We See What We Know

   15.) Build Your Beast a Fire I

 WEIRD OWL features John Cassidy (keyboard, synth), Kenneth Cook (bass, keyboard, synth, back-up vocals), Sean Reynolds (drums, percussion), Jon Rudd (guitar) and Trevor Tyrrell (vocals, guitar)