For some reason The Mae Shi are a band that until recently, completely flew under my radar. I picked up Terrorbird in the $1.00 bin at my local chain record store. From the cover I thought I might be getting some Erase Errata style tuneless girl-punk but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. Who would have thought that the world needed a post-punk Ween mixed with Animal Collective abandon. I certainly didn’t, but having listened to Terrorbird a great deal (my brand new ipod tells me this is my fourth most listened to record after The Woods’ How to Survive, TV on the Radio’s Return to Cookie Mountain and Birchville Cat Motel’s Our Love will Destroy the World) I have trouble thinking why any home wouldn’t need this record. Thirty-two tracks of angular guitar, sublime pop hooks and post-punk swagger. I haven’t delved too far into their background but they seem to be a quartet from LA. I did find this little description of Terrorbird on Amazon and decided to pinch it and share it with you.
“The four band members recorded and mixed “Terrorbird” on four different computers. The result consists of eleven songs about the Old and New Testament, ten songs about the Terror Bird (a prehistoric, flightless, flesh eating bird found in parts of South America), three songs about vampires, two songs about werewolves, two songs about ergot poisoning in the Middle Ages, one song about shark evolution, one song about California, and one song about dolphins in the military.”
Here are two tracks from this record.
Megamouth
Vampire Beats
Ducks Battle Satan 