OK Goodnight- The Fox and the Bird

[TAC]

What are Grados?

It's a brand of headphones..they range from around a c-note to over 2k a pair. Mine are around 300 and are beyond amazing, they're open ended so the sound has a more open room feel to it.

Cool!!

[Jamesman42]

Off-topic, but what do you do during dedicated listens exactly? I am trying to find a good way to do that. Just laying in bed? Taking a long walk? Playing video games? Pretty interested in what you or others do.

When I do a fully dedicated listen to an album, I listen to it on my screened-in porch with a cigar and a glass of bourbon.  No other activities.

But those are kind of rare.

I know. *slowly hides binoculars*

[axeman90210]

So, a few months later what's everyone's read on exactly how the end of the story plays out? Lyrics aren't normally my strong suit when it comes to music, but I'm sharing this album with some people in a music discord this weekend and it seems like there's a bit of ambiguity/not one established canonical take on it. My view so far is that the bird dies after the encounter with the crocodile, the fox has the final showdown with the bear on the mountain, the bear dies when the cliff gives way, and the fox dies on the mountain but having succeeded in bringing the rain back to their home.

[jammindude]

So, a few months later what's everyone's read on exactly how the end of the story plays out? Lyrics aren't normally my strong suit when it comes to music, but I'm sharing this album with some people in a music discord this weekend and it seems like there's a bit of ambiguity/not one established canonical take on it. My view so far is that the bird dies after the encounter with the crocodile, the fox has the final showdown with the bear on the mountain, the bear dies when the cliff gives way, and the fox dies on the mountain but having succeeded in bringing the rain back to their home.

This is my take as well. While the story never states exactly who dies, I can't picture the bird saying "feet" at the climax of The Mountain.

The whole ending moves me to tears. This is such an amazing album.

[Buddyhunter1]

Just an update on the audio issue.

Those of us who are full on from the CD generation know what it sounds like when you have a lens on your player that's dirty? Or out of alignment? Sometimes it's a dirty disc too, but it's that digital scratching noise?

I was hearing that really badly at the very beginning of The Drought and during the quiet piano intro to The Journey. At first, I thought it was my car's disc player, so I decided to burn a FLAC file from the disc and then listen to it that way. But the sound was still there. That was the reason for my original complaint.  Now that I've got the original FLAC files directly from the band I noticed that the noise was completely non-existent in The Drought (thank goodness) but when I was cranking The Journey yesterday, I still heard that very mild scratching sound...though not NEARLY as noticeable...at the beginning of The Journey.   Is anyone else hearing that noise? It's definitely worse on the CD, but I'm still hearing it ever so slightly on the files and I'm wondering if it's somehow intentional? Or a glitch in the original file? Or am I the only one that hears it?

That sound at the start of The Journey is probably intentional (it sounds weird though), but I was listening to The Mountain just now and noticed there's some bad clipping during the quiet section right before the climax. You can hear it pretty clearly on the "so close and yet so far" line. It sounds like the audio file for the keyboards got fucked up somehow. I don't have a CD but it's on both my Bandcamp digital copy and the Spotify upload. Gonna take another point off the whole album for that blunder.

Anyways, I like this album a lot. It's got some speed bumps in the middle (I don't think The Nightmare or The Dream add much to the album) but I love the lush, subtly-jazzy sound of it, even during the heavier songs. Killer vocals too, both from Casey and Elizabeth.

Song ranking because fuck it we DTF

1: The Fox And The Bird
2: The Bear
3: The Falcon
4: The Mountain
5: The Drought
6: The Bird
7: The Snake
8: The Raccoon (And The Myth)
9: The Journey
10: The Rain
11: The Crocodile
12: The Dream
13: The Nightmare

[lonestar]

US tour announced

[axeman90210]

Damn, nothing even close to me down in FL.

[lonestar]

I may do Sacramento and Berkeley, especially if work permits it

[Adami]

I may do Sacramento and Berkeley, especially if work permits it

But they're not even Japanese!

[hefdaddy42]

I may do Sacramento and Berkeley, especially if work permits it

But they're not even Japanese!

[lonestar]

[Adami]

Seems a bit racist.

[jammindude]

 

I have plans in stone for that weekend they trek to the Pacific Northwest. Feeling annoyed.

I don't think a trip to San Diego is in the cards, but I'm thinking about it.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

got a ticket for denver

[jammindude]

I just checked out the other two bands and they sound fantastic as well.

The issue is that I have my JW summer convention that 3 day weekend, and yes...it means more to me than any concert.

I'm thinking more and more that I might just go to the show anyway. I can go to day one of the convention on Friday and the show Friday night, but it means getting home at midnight on a Friday and having to wake up at 6am to get ready for day 2 of the convention.  If I were still 30, this would be a piece of cake. But at 54, it's a bit tougher.

[TAC]

I just checked out the other two bands and they sound fantastic as well.

The issue is that I have my JW summer convention that 3 day weekend, and yes...it means more to me than any concert.

I'm thinking more and more that I might just go to the show anyway. I can go to day one of the convention on Friday and the show Friday night, but it means getting home at midnight on a Friday and having to wake up at 6am to get ready for day 2 of the convention.  If I were still 30, this would be a piece of cake. But at 54, it's a bit tougher.

Give me a break. You can do that! Jeesh.

[Buddyhunter1]

I just checked out the other two bands and they sound fantastic as well.

The issue is that I have my JW summer convention that 3 day weekend, and yes...it means more to me than any concert.

I'm thinking more and more that I might just go to the show anyway. I can go to day one of the convention on Friday and the show Friday night, but it means getting home at midnight on a Friday and having to wake up at 6am to get ready for day 2 of the convention.  If I were still 30, this would be a piece of cake. But at 54, it's a bit tougher.

Give me a break. You can do that! Jeesh.

Just like you could come to the Cambridge show that I'll also be going to

[jammindude]

I just checked out the other two bands and they sound fantastic as well.

The issue is that I have my JW summer convention that 3 day weekend, and yes...it means more to me than any concert.

I'm thinking more and more that I might just go to the show anyway. I can go to day one of the convention on Friday and the show Friday night, but it means getting home at midnight on a Friday and having to wake up at 6am to get ready for day 2 of the convention.  If I were still 30, this would be a piece of cake. But at 54, it's a bit tougher.

Give me a break. You can do that! Jeesh.

Just like you could come to the Cambridge show that I'll also be going to

I did briefly toy with the idea of traveling to another show. But GOOD GRIEF!!! Plane tickets, and two nights in a hostel were going to cost me 400 bucks to go to either San Diego or Chicago.  Then you have to take into account the tickets, the VIP package, the food, the Uber to get around.... it starts adding up really fast. So I bagged that idea.

[jammindude]

I just checked out the other two bands and they sound fantastic as well.

The issue is that I have my JW summer convention that 3 day weekend, and yes...it means more to me than any concert.

I'm thinking more and more that I might just go to the show anyway. I can go to day one of the convention on Friday and the show Friday night, but it means getting home at midnight on a Friday and having to wake up at 6am to get ready for day 2 of the convention.  If I were still 30, this would be a piece of cake. But at 54, it's a bit tougher.

Give me a break. You can do that! Jeesh.

Trust me. My brain and my heart both tell me this will be no problem whatsoever.  But it all starts when my body starts reminding my brain the way it feels every time I try to do something that used to be easy...and doesn't feel that easy anymore.  Then my brain goes, "oh ya, I remember that now. That sucked!"

[Dittomist]

I'm so glad I opened this mysterious thread tonight and gave The Fox & The Bird a listen. It was exactly what I needed. And the timing is perfect because they're coming to Portland soon! 
Thank you all!

[lonestar]

I just checked out the other two bands and they sound fantastic as well.

The issue is that I have my JW summer convention that 3 day weekend, and yes...it means more to me than any concert.

I'm thinking more and more that I might just go to the show anyway. I can go to day one of the convention on Friday and the show Friday night, but it means getting home at midnight on a Friday and having to wake up at 6am to get ready for day 2 of the convention.  If I were still 30, this would be a piece of cake. But at 54, it's a bit tougher.

Give me a break. You can do that! Jeesh.

Trust me. My brain and my heart both tell me this will be no problem whatsoever.  But it all starts when my body starts reminding my brain the way it feels every time I try to do something that used to be easy...and doesn't feel that easy anymore.  Then my brain goes, "oh ya, I remember that now. That sucked!"

I can speak as one who just did a out and back from SF to LA in less than a day with a 3 hour Haken show in between...it's totally fucking worth it.


God wants you to be happy, he wants you at the OK Goodnight show bud.

[Dr. DTVT]

A little biased because I know two people in the band but Lines In The Sky are awesome and a good compliment to the line up.  It just sucks that they are not really coming near the eastern US except for the first show, which isn't really close to me anyways.

[jammindude]

Well, at the last minute, I went.

They played from 8:45-10:15 so I was able to get home and in bed sooner than I thought.

They absolutely KILLED IT. They were on fire and the crowd was really enthusiastic and the band was feeding off the positive vibes and it all made for an incredible show.

They even played a brand new song, which was very jazzy and proggy and kicked all kinds of ass.  I'll post a few pictures later.

[Buddyhunter1]

They even played a brand new song, which was very jazzy and proggy and kicked all kinds of ass.  I'll post a few pictures later.

I caught that too, it sounded great. I'm glad they're working on new music even with the departure of one of their guitarists. Though one thing I realized at the show is that they're not really hurting for members who can play guitar.

[lonestar]

Cool, can't wait for Wednesday!

[jammindude]

I just posted the setlist at setlist.fm if anyone is interested.

They did have 2 songs (including the new one) marked as "can cut" on the paper setlist I got from the stage, but all songs were played for us.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/ok-goodnight/2024/substation-seattle-seattle-wa-3b56a834.html

[LithoJazzoSphere]

If anybody knows of another band that is this all over the place I'm all ears...It's the extreme diversity contained within a single album that's really connecting with me right now.

Saw this last year and thought about responding to it then and got distracted (probably by something in my roulette) before I could post, but this thread resurfacing made me remember that I had been pondering this at the time.  So here are a few other bands that could potentially scratch that itch.  Some don't get nearly as heavy, some have rather different stylistic centers, but they should touch on elements of modern female vocal-driven rock and/or metal bands who are varied stylistically, generally with both softer and "harder" sides that they are equally excellent at:

Aghora, Akphaezya, Destiny Potato (AKA Sordid Pink, and some of David Maxim Micic's solo material), Dirt Poor Robins, Eluveitie, Exploring Birdsong, Giant Walker, Kingfisher Sky, Oceans of Slumber, Ram-Zet, Scardust, To-Mera.