On their debut album Morning Kills The Dark (on Pop Up Records), Biirdie performs stylish chamber pop, full of nuance and restraint. Just off a US tour, member Jared Flamm’s current listening tastes reveal new discoveries of old music that at first glance seem to be unlikely picks.

Steve Miller Band– Circle of Love

Richard [Gowen, also of Biirdie] turned me on to this song a few months ago. It’s from the 1981 album of the same name and it isn’t included on Steve’s popular Greatest Hits package. I’ll take this over “Jet Airliner” any day. Retro lyrics and manipulated vocal harmonies set up a massive and wandering guitar solo that essentially makes up 80 percent of this song. This song will definitely make it into the Biirdie set. If you are able to track down the Circle Of Love album you will also be rewarded with the excellent “Heart Like A Wheel” and “Macho City”, the lone 16-minute cosmic disco track on side two.

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Warren Zevon– The French Inhaler

From Warren’s self-titled 1976 album that was produced by Jackson Browne and like Morning Kills The Dark, is very much a tribute to Los Angeles. This album was given to me years ago though I’ve only recently become obsessed with it. I listen to it all the time. Start to finish, there is not a bad song on the album. Warren asks at the top of “The French Inhaler”, “How you gonna make your way in the world / When you weren’t cut out for working?” A question that unfortunately, I much too often am asking myself.

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Bloom– Jet Set Silhouette

I co-wrote this track with Devin [Moore, Bloom bassist/vocalist] for Bloom’s new and magnificent O Sinner album. I had written the original lyrics to the chorus as “I used to love before it was cool”, and of course, he changed them to “I was too loud before it was cool”. I’d say that’s on par and pretty typical of our relationship. I¹d like for Biirdie to record and release a version of this song soon.

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