Todd Forsgren grew up bird watching and admiring Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America and John James Audubon’s Monograph, Birds of America. Back then, Audobon shot birds, and used pins and wires to distort them into the positions (quite dramatic) that eventually gathered praise in England and beyond. Peterson apparently was one of the first to utilize the field guide approach to artistic renditions of birds. Today, most ornithologists use mist nests — trapping unsuspecting birds long enough to size, sex, age and brand them before setting them free. Forsgren has taken the opportunity, as a former birder and an artist / photographer, to capture these elegant but embarrassing moments. As he says, “The birds inhabit a fascinating space between our framework of the bush and the hand. It is a fragile and embarrassing moment before they disappear back into the woods, and into data.”

Photographed: the Magnolia Warbler. More photos at his site.

I’m already getting shit over at Austinist for such a glowing review of Feed the Animals, but it will do little to change my mind. This record is as good or better than Night Ripper, and I am pleased to recommend it to anyone who enjoys the littlest parts of music just as fervently as the big ones.

Read it here.

In “No Pause” we get a section of Heart’s “Magic Man” that’s typically considered superfluous and self-indulgent, not to mention downright bad. The bizarre synthesized breakdown occurs at the tail end of a nearly 1:30 minute guitar solo, and accompanies some lilting yet ominous vocal harmonies between the Wilson sisters. All of this buildup in the song makes its end that much more fulfilling, as the song gradually pulls itself back into the chorus. Gillis uses this tiny bit of “Magic Man” as a bridge too, and cuts it off right before the payoff — its crescendo riding shotgun with Chuck D’s “Rebel Without a Pause” — then falling off a cliff, a cliff that leads to Len’s “Steal My Sunshine,” no less.

Girl Talk + Apple from Andrew Pile on Vimeo.

I made this one for Kevin before he left on a trip - I think it’s generally awesome, even though it’s kind of long. Enjoy it!

DOWNLOAD: Viewfinder (zip)

01 Baltic Fleet “Intro”
02 The Mae Shi “The Potential”
03 Castor “Moving Backgrounds”
04 Squeeze “Another Nail in My Heart”
05 Adem “Loro”
06 Rollerskate Skinny “Shallow Thunder”
07 John Phillips “Drum”
08 Goldmund “To”
09 Ruby Suns “Oh, Mojave”
10 Mount Eerie “Appetite”
11 T. Rex “Monolith”
12 Sun “Mosquito”
13 Tindersticks “Yesterday Tomorrows”
14 Fleet Foxes “Mykonos”
15 Home “Sweetener of Heart”
16 Teenage Fanclub “The Concept”
17 Roxy Music “2HB”
18 Lambchop “Being Tyler”
19 Nick Lowe “What’s Shakin’ on the Hill”
20 Todd Rundgren “Wolfman Jack”
21 Rites of Spring “For Want Of”
22 David Grubbs “Show Me Who to Love”
23 John Cale “You Know Me More Than I Know”
24 Rameses III “Theme Two”
25 Pretty Things “Grass”
26 The Kinks “Strangers”

This mix should be listened to while doing some thoughtful night driving on a warm summer evening.

Or something like that.

DOWNLOAD: Nosedive Mixtape (zip)

01 Labradford “Soft Return”
02 Bark Psychosis “Burning the City”
03 Juana Molina “No Seas Antipatica”
04 Minus Story “Heaven and Hell”
05 Namelessnumberheadman “Mid-Continent”
06 Linda Perhacs “Chimicum Rain”
07 Shearwater “The Snow Leopard”
08 Paavoharju “Italialaisella Laivalla”
09 The Notwist “This Room”
10 Jonquil “Here’s To the Little Man”
11 David Thomas Broughton “I Don’t Want to Believe You”
12 Mark Hollis “The Colour of Spring”
13 The National “About Today”