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Winnowing

by Bird City

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    This is a 12" vinyl of "Winnowing", the debut album of Guelph Ontario's "Bird City".

    Includes unlimited streaming of Winnowing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 CAD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a gatefold card case, wheat-artwork by Jenny Mitchell (Bird City)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Winnowing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 CAD or more 

     

1.
Bird City 03:50
There's a lion-shaped tree All wiry and frail With a great big mane And a great big tail And another in a field on its own At 6:55 all covered in snow There's an owl in the top that's gazing At the foggy light of a sun that's raising And another that's just perched in the grass That looks at me as the bus drives past On a dark and shadowed day a flock can make it pretty Catching the light of a sun so bright that's shining from Bird City Without the spring it's a different thing, the trip seems so much longer To tolerate the dark of late I've had to be much stronger Along the road I see the shape of an Eagle that seems to know That as I drive away from town I'd actually rather go To where the birds set out in flight are soaring arced and pretty Drawn in the black against the light that's shining from Bird City
2.
Hours 03:24
There's a spot downtown real great That you left last night real late When all the drinkers walking Had run out of their time Just sitting and sitting there With not a single threatening stare And you lay your head down for just a second Cause nobody seemed to mind You've got hours and hours and hours to get home Those hours and hours and hours When you're alone Such an age and gender range That not even you look strange Looking out at a city wondering How it could seem so wide And your thumb out and the sun out And the pale is turning red And you look up at the sun Thinking it's a better place to hide You've got miles and miles and miles to wonder why With passers and passers and passers passing by Those hours and hours and hours away from home Those hours and hours and hours... ...you'll be alone.
3.
A Bit Part 03:28
I'm not allowed to be sad I have all the things that I ever wished I'd had I'm not allowed to lament When I've loved every moment that I've spent What is this role that I'm playing? I keep meeting others but it seems they're never staying You've got my back and I'm waiting Watching those years I've been dating Try to explain, but I can't do I sure wish I knew why hearts pick who they do And what you don't know won't hurt you Well I know that just isn't true Play it all out, one run through I'm watching the sides and what they do Oooooooo I've been dressed for the occasion Waiting for some explanation I don't want this feeling to take the lead It isn't what I asked for, it isn't what I need I want some time in a bit part I want to hide with a running start I want to hold onto extras And play the story line no one expects of us And what you don't know won't hurt you Well I know that just isn't true I'm torn into bits with the wondering I want to save old but I want new And I don't know what to do Ooooooooo
4.
Hide it there behind the glass Who really cares if it's going to last Something only strangers seem to see They think you're lonely On your own you can feel it in the dark there You can feel it hidden everywhere Try to hold it but it's always slipping Gone gone gone you can feel it there's no spark there But you can feel it hidden everywhere Try to hold it but it's always slipping Everywhere you've found a face That's made you comfortable in every place You can find a look you recognize You see it in their eyes, feel it in their eyes But on your own you can feel me in the dark there You can feel me hidden everywhere Try to hold me but it's always slipping Gone gone gone you can feel me there's no spark there But you can feel me hidden everywhere Try to hold me but it's always slipping Gone gone gone... You have things you settle in your mind Ways you justify it every time You say these things and you think they're true And they might be true, but they might not be true On your own you will feel me in the dark there You will feel me hidden everywhere
5.
It Fell 02:07
If out of dark comes light, and out of day comes night Out of grey comes white Falling down my steps are the little green that's left To great me through my window Before the great big winds blow, one thing left till they go Out into the white, buried far from sight, gone until next year All under here Just buried they'll be well enough with the other ones that fell I watched them all last night Get buried far from sight I turned out all the lights Out of grey came white
6.
It's the middle of the night somewhere In the middle of the day I'm thinking about it When anything that I might do Is so laid out that I can't deny it Some of us will take a job with a bigger day While the night just slips away And you might see some years slip by Through the fun of a life of half-closed eyes And there might have been a route for me On my own in the world just stumbling freely Never set early alarms Or leading or following Just a casual casualty And I spend so much time in the day To see so much of my night just slipping away And I'm trying to figure out if it's okay To miss the middle of the night in the middle of the day And I'm trying to figure out if it's okay To miss the middle of the night in the middle of the day
7.
A Band End 04:36
With every stop a piece would fall Into the road right off these walls We’d hold the wheels against our sides The highways force their fingers pry and I would stop to fuel or pee To see the land surrounding me and seven would be six the drummer’s in the mist The headlights now are peeling off The seats are harder, the brakes are soft I’ve stapled seat belts but they lift And the trunk has opened and spilled our bits and I would stop to stretch and breathe To see the road turn into trees and six has turned to to five the keyboards took to flight The auto locks are trying and freezing To keep us here from ever leaving And the windows let the phantoms in I try to think but hear it spin the wheel is locked to keep us curving The speedometer is spinning and swerving And I get out to sit in the back To have a coffee and try to relax And five has turned to four The guitars slipped through the door The room inside is now increasing As the walls are buckling and easing The springs spring up and into sides The lights have died, the mirrors have eyes The head rest found a final place  to rest itself - our necks aren't safe The oil is thick and growing fingers The fuel spills out, its powder lingers And I get out to check a map and wake you up so I can nap and four has turned to three may the oboe rest in peace The last one other than you or me Somehow slipped out when I didn’t see I wish I had a story to say for them But they just sort of played a bit of everything And now the car has been returned To the places where things like that are earned And it’s you and I at the end Can I call this a band? Or can I call this a band-end?
8.
With two tickets to the show But nobody who will go You'd rather see the girl who spits and swears Me and Gillie in the crowd Fairly hyped and fairly proud That the intermission party is upstairs And so quickly it is night Just a tiny haze of light The bag that everybody tries to steal You and the mixed up girl, in the messed up party world Who won't believe me when I say the ghost is real The ghost is real And the light's on and the light's gone It's just my father eating terror for the show All us dressed for Halloween All the costumes and the screams And tiny trips in giant dreams for me to own And the light's on and the light's gone It's just my father eating terror for the show All us dressed for Halloween All the costumes and the screams And tiny trips in giant dreams for me to own For me to own
9.
Growing Too 02:46
Life in an Archie magazine you come out clean Gets to pick from two and they both are free Soon I'll start to show and we all will know That what has started innocent will grow and grow I will get my two, but it's different then Small feet start to tread where before were men And I will wave goodbye to simple magazines No one ever got it both ways, no matter what it seems And I'll get to have your smiles and maybe keep some Maybe even keep the glances I once ran from But all the while I'll grow and they'll grow distant Maybe if I seem intriguing it will be different Will you be mine at that time? Will you be mine, the one that never counted The one I left behind, the amount that never amounted To what I say I'd do if I hadn't started growing Will you remain what I don't know and assume is all worth Knowing Will you be mine?
10.
What have I given up? What do I think I'll find? Who goes picking a fight, Calling up the cops in the middle of the night Take it from me, it wasn't easy I can feel my heart falling right out of my body Oh I Gonna fix it up and put it back in, not sure who it's going to see again Oh I Maybe I'll get it all fixed up But part of me feels like giving up And I've got to get to a place Where I, Feel like I Where I Feel like I Take it from me, it isn't easy I'm still gonna save a spot for you, and whatever it is I feel when I see you I'm gonna try to keep what's there, keep everything that we built and share But sometimes you just need to leave And take it from me, it wasn't easy
11.
Back when they weren't trained to look for bodies But I could because I had this hobby Deep down with the long black eels I can't describe the way I'd feel Going down to look for bodies Deep down in three old wrecks That I had found that they hadn't found yet I started up a museum of the Great Lakes Full of all the things that I couldn't take Cause I can't believe the things I'd find Or harder still the ones left behind All those things that the water kept Burned an image that I can't forget Going down to look for bodies When I was looking for someone not buried Into the dark to where they're carried And when I knew that I was the only one breathing I can't describe the way I was feeling Going down to look for bodies All those things they left behind Cause no one gets to keep their bodies No I can't believe the things I'd find Going down to look for bodies All those things they left behind Going down to look for bodies No I can't believe the things I'd find

about

For nearly two decades, singer/songwriter Jenny Mitchell has been regarded as one of the most original voices within the Canadian indie music scene, and her latest project, Bird City, is her most personal yet.

As a beloved fixture of the music community in and around Guelph, Ontario, Mitchell has been a member of the Barmitzvah Brothers, the Burning Hell, Richard Laviolette and the Oil Spills, as well as performing under her solo alter ego Jenny Omnichord. Bird City is in many ways an evolution of the last concept, with Mitchell trading her Omnichord for the banjo and tenor guitar. Focusing on these instruments finally allowed Mitchell’s songwriting talents to fully blossom, and the exposed and poetic songs of paranoia, heartbreak and self-examination on Winnowing, the debut Bird City album, encapsulate the last 15 years of Mitchell’s life.

credits

released October 27, 2017

Jenny Mitchell w/ Scott Merritt, Bry Webb (Provider, Constantines), Nathan Lawr (Minotaurs, Fembots), J.J. Ipsen (Hayden, Jim Guthrie), Rich Burnett (Bry Webb, Frog and Henry), Tristan O'Malley (The Barmitzvah Brothers, Black Cabbage), Tyler Wagler (The Human Rights, David Sereda), Ben Grossman (Loreena McKennett, Snake Church), Scott Haynes (Shopkeeper, Bill Killionaire), and Steph Yates (Esther Grey, The Furys)

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Bird City Guelph, Ontario

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