Seattle trio, Virgin of the Birds, has announced their sophomore album, ‘Secret Kids,’ will arrive October 14 via Abandoned Love Records in North America, and Song, By Toad in the UK/Europe. You can take a listen to the first single lifted from the album, Spooky, Stony, Barely Over Thirty, via Soundcloud below.
Named after a poor English translation of a Salvador Dali painting, Virgin of the Birds treads a line between intimate, lo-fi pop and the occasional grandeur of early art rock.
Led by songwriter Jon Rooney, Virgin of the Birds started as a bedroom recording project in the mid-00s, in San Francisco, surfacing as a full band in Austin, before settling in Seattle. After self-releasing a series of homespun EPs via his own Abandoned Love Records, Rooney caught the ear of the Scottish blog/label Song, By Toad who released Virgin of the Bird’s debut full-length, ‘Winter Seeds,’ in 2014. Rooney cites the Velvet Underground’s third record, the Verlaines and Lilys as references, and has been compared to Felt, Bill Callahan and David Berman, with his verbose verbiage and mining of obscure pop culture references throughout his songs, and the album’s title, which gives a nod to late ’70s Philadelphia folk-rock saviors Kenn Kweder and his Secret Kidds.
‘Secret Kids’ track listing
01. Cardinal Points
02. Spooky, Stony Barely Over Thirty
03. I Am A Bad Dreamer
04. Spanish Accusations
05. Minmae Shall Be Revealed
06. Secret Kids
07. The Queen Of Sweden
08. Victor Bockris
09. Summer Palace
10. Mothering Sunday
While Virgin of the Birds performed through the years in San Francisco, Austin, the Pacific Northwest and Scotland Rooney with drummer/producer Colin J Nelson and bassist Ken Nottingham completed their first ever tour of the West Coast this past spring, and with the release of ‘Secret Kids’ will take to the road across the USA this Fall, before heading back to the UK in December – dates to be announced in the coming weeks.
For more information on Virgin of the Birds, visit virginofthebirds.com.
