Why do birds suddenly appear every time Johnny Fantastic draws near? Perhaps their gentle tweets, echoing from a distant field of daffodils and daisies, carry peace and hope to hearts faintly pulsing under the ashes of bombs, trash, and twisted wires.
"Bluebirds, Bluebirds, Bluebirds" is the part playground, part battleground of two opposing forces: the soft, familiar, nostalgic, and sentimental and the cold, inhuman, robotic, and metal. Like an ejection seat, the record drops us directly into the war zone of human society, pummeling us with pounding bangs, shrill drills, and devastating explosions. A trembling croon shouts fearfully from within the chaos, lamenting the pedestrian and existential concerns of the modern individual: poverty, fear of domestication, desire to be free of technology. Somehow through the noise, a bluebird quietly beckons from afar: Fly away, fly away, fly away, fly away, fly away....
On the crest of an explosive wave, we blast through the brick walls that trap us inside the physical world into the void: a place where we can shed our concerns, our nature, and our identity. Here we return to the stars, the dust of which comprised every element of our former earthly existence. We are born, we live a trillion years as balls of light, we explode into dust, and once again drop into the endless black of nothingness
And still, it is inevitable that somewhere on the infinite timeline, we should reawaken as what we once were. Only this time we are quick to discover, as we scramble to reacquaint ourselves with love and hate, good and evil, arms and legs, gravity, and so on that so much in our environment has changed around us - we ourselves have changed: is this earth? are we even human anymore? were we ever?
The bluebirds call us again: drop these existential nightmares and anxious questions. Let us embrace the unknown. For from the moment we entered Johnny Fantastic's alternate universe, it was the unknown and unfamiliar that made us wonder WONDER WWOONNDDEERRRRR.
When we wonder, we shine, we breathe, we move, we smile. The colorless becomes colorful, the lifeless becomes vibrant, and the harsh noises become sweet, sweet music
credits
released July 11, 2013
John Di Lascio - vocals, various instruments and non-instruments
Ben Schurr - various non-instruments and instruments
Simone Shuffett - strings
Adam Orlando - percussion
Brandon Moses - kegs and metal sheets
all songs and lyrics written by John Di Lascio
produced by Ben Schurr and John Di Lascio at The Paperhaus for BLIGHT. productions
mixed by Rick Irby at Lighthouse Studios
mastered by Ali Jaafar
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