“In Our Talons” - Bowerbirds

Rewind.

Every once and awhile a good band/song/album/musical movement will pass me by without so much as a “Hello” or “How Are You?”. Of course, I take all the blame for these “missed connections,” as I was most likely so blindly infatuated with another that I simply could not redirect my ears for even a second (I have a tendency to be a monogamous listener).

Bowerbirds is one such group that could potentially have found itself as just another name on my list of “the one(s) that got away” but, as the fates would have it, a couple of days ago I turned the radio on just in time to catch the last few seconds of “In Our Talons” (from the debut album Hymns For A Dark Horse). Needless to say, a few seconds was all it took.

It takes a lot of nerve to destroy this wondrous earth.

The melancholy lyrics stuck long enough for me to execute a full-fledged Google search, and alas! a connection was made. If the juxtaposition of pining for an Eden-esque planet and the rollicking good fun of some well-placed deet deets isn’t enough to get you hooked, perhaps the music video will. A dancing crab and a couple of praying mantises engaging in some serious post-apocalypic PDA leave you wondering if you should be laughing or boycotting big oil. Either way, the band gets the message across without beating you over the head with their accordian (a classy addition to any song, I might add).

With a jangly nostalgia that rivals Edward Sharpe’s “Home”, this song should be able to get me through the next couple of months until the release of the band’s third album (The Clearing) on March 6 via Dead Oceans. But, if you’ve already had your fill of stop motion woodland creatures slowly succumbing to extinction, check out the single “Tuck The Darkness In” here.