The time has come to ramp up training for the STP (Seattle to Portland bike ride). Last weekend, I took a ride out toward La Conner along my normal route, which takes me down McLean. This particular road is on the path toward the famous Skagit Valley Tulips, and being in the middle of the Tulip Festival, traffic was anything but light.

“The Secret Plume” is the latest video from Seattle artist Virgin Of The Birds and it features early video of some very unique dancers. In fact, we saw a similar dancer in The Robot Ate Me’s video for “On Vacation”, which was eerie and surreal. Here, however, it complements Jon Rooney’s melodies, which are often timeless.

There’s something about the music Virgin Of The Birds creates that is seemingly timeless. It’s absolute, in the present, yet it hints of a time long past. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the songs, with poppy guitar melodies and an ever consistent percussion. The songwriting is where complexity dominates; a lyrical prowess filled with story-like mystery. This mystery has dominated the library Virgin Of The Birds has built. And you can hear it thoughout “They Wake”.

Words and music by Jon Rooney, who records as Virgin Of The Birds.
To begin with a broad shot of dubious hyperbole, I declare that things have never been better than they were 1973. By things I mean popular art: art that was neither conventionally entertaining by modern tastes nor particularly coherent yet existed in some sort of hazy, avocado mainstream rather than the academy or the crevices of marginelia (sorry, Jazz). The early 1970′s, thanks to the persistent adolescent myopia of Baby Boomers and their now five decades …

Banquet Years is the third EP in a digital-only series of releases by Seattle-by-way-of-Austin’s Jon Rooney, the Virgin Of The Birds mastermind and proprietor of Abandoned Love Records. The album, containing five songs, finds Rooney further expanding his capabilities and musicianship. Opening track “Let Me Be Your Bride” demonstrates his folk-versatility, from the 60s-era bass guitar bop to the borderline experimental tinkering on the keys. Not to mention, the wicked guitar-work radiating in emotive psychedelic hypnosis.

Not surprisingly, this list is filled with EPs by quite a few bands you know and quite a few you probably don’t. Of the ones you don’t know, many are likely from Washington; a quick count leaves me with five bands, or 1/4 of this list. Many of these bands I consider among the most promising artists to surface in 2009. All are worth checking out, and you’ll want to keep an eye on them as we head into 2010.

The Seattle DIY king (Levi Fuller) returns with his next Ball Of Wax comp. This time, it’s themed. Each song is between one and two minutes in length, hence the album’s name, Ball Of Wax 18: One Minute Singles. You’ll see some FensePost local favorites in there, including Levi Fuller (Mr. Seattle DIY himself), Virgin Of The Birds (pictured), Dandelion Gold, Webelos, Open Fire Choir, and Poland. To celebrate its launch, there’s gonna be a SHOW!

We’re excited to exclusively premiere the sixth track of Virgin Of The Birds’ latest EP, Dear Furies, available only here on FensePost. The song features Jon Rooney’s growing focus of meshing his love for folk-pop with the obsession with classic underground films, like the classic works of Christopher Lee circa the 60s and 70s.

Virgin Of The Birds is the solo project of Jon Rooney, the primary individual behind Abandoned Love Records. His latest project is a slew of EPs available from the ALR website, the first of which is Every Rival.

Each Ball Of Wax compilation has a theme behind it and this one is the thirteenth quarterly comp that Seattle artist Levi Fuller has done. What Fuller does is concoct a theme (at least on some… several have no theme other than being “music to enjoy”) then gather a mass of (usually) local Pacific Northwest artists, who all write and record an exclusive song for the release. This was my first time seeing several of the performers on the list, from St Rainbow (the folks behind Hollow Earth …