Thomas Paine once said, “reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it”. Fits of Reason, the new self-produced album by Brown Bird, raises its hat to Mr. Paine in a flurry of cerebral themes that surface in the album’s eleven songs.
The band’s two members, David Lamb and MorganEve Swain, continue to build their sound from the foundations of blues and American roots music, utilizing the simple foot-percussion, violin, cello and upright bass that they have become known for, while expanding Swain’s vocal presence and flaunting Lamb’s lyrical mastery. Recorded in their home-state of Rhode Island at Machines With Magnets, Fits of Reason is inspired by the writings of Omar Khayyam, Christopher Hitchens, and Plato, among others, and grapples with the human condition in a smooth but unapologetic departure from the band’s previous release, Salt for Salt. With the introduction of electric guitar, electric bass, and a more prominent display of the band’s Middle Eastern, metal, and psych-rock influences, Fits of Reason delves into heavier territory and invites the listener to hear with discerning ears.
Brown Bird spent most of 2012 on the road, supporting Trampled By Turtles, The Devil Makes Three, Yonder Mountain String Band and Horse Feathers, and wowed the crowd at the Newport Folk Festival with their first main-stage appearance. The band will continue criss-crossing the US in 2013, with a full US tour planned in April, and an appearance scheduled at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, CA. Fits of Reason will be released on Supply & Demand Music on April 2nd, 2013.

These United States surrender themselves to unbridled rock and roll exuberance: ringing guitars, thundering drums, desperate yearning bordering on hope. By turns larger-than-life and disarmingly intimate, this is folk in the truest sense - a record of the moment, of the cultural and emotional forces that animate everyday existence somewhere down below the headlines. (But never apart from them.) And These United States play it the way folk was meant to be played: hard, fast, big, slow, long, loud, loose, at last unburdened. They play like they mean it. Like there's never been a better time to be alive.
Over the last four years These United States has played 800 shows, released four albums and gained the support of NPR's All Things Considered, World Cafe, and Mountain Stage, Spin, Paste, Filter, NY Times, Village Voice, Brooklyn Vegan, JamBase, The Onion, Daytrotter, My Old Kentucky Blog, KEXP, KCRW, WXPN, and WFUV. Festival highlights include: Lollapalooza, High Sierra, Pickathon, Glastonbury, Mt. Jam, XPoNential, Joshua Tree, Celebrate Brooklyn, and Forecastle.

The Janks offer a change for rock 'n' roll on their second record 'Hands of Time'. On songs like "Dead Man," and "Billy the Kid," guitars careen and vocals rise and fall seamlessly, while on songs like "Demon Dance", the band sounds like they're playing a house party in Hell. The Janks sound like Pete Townshend going on a bender with Gene Ween, and that's just part of what makes Hands of Time come to
life. The band principals, blood brothers Zachary Zmed [Vocals, Guitar, Keys], and Dylan Zmed [Vocals, Mandolin]—give listeners a front row seat at their "theatre". Zack's reverence for tradition melds with an appreciation that runs the gamut —from The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Mahler, and Queen to Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Radiohead, and Ween. Everything simply sets the stage for Hands Of
Time though.

Dylan says of 'Hands of Time', "It was definitely influenced by
musical theatre. The first half develops the story of a young boy who comes from a broken home, while the second reflects the visceral intensity of growing up from separated roots. At the end, we see there's possibility for change."

Zack capsulizes the record by saying, "It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen next from song to song. There's a duality to the record that we tried to make clear with two halves, one lighter and one darker. The title track and opening song "Hands Of Time" is a subtle overture which has themes and melodies that are quoted throughout the rest of the record, most notably on "Adolescence",
"Child Prodigy", and "Rat Racers". With the final two songs "When I was a kid" and "Get Outta Town" there was an attempt to create some sense of catharsis. In the end, they're all just a bunch of self serving, bullshit songs though."

Zachary has been working under The Janks name since 2006, and released the debut record 'Delicate Mouthfeels' later that same year which is a collection of twisted folk tales. Since 2007 the group has gone through numerous incarnations until younger brother Dylan joined in
early 2010. In early 2012 The Brothers Zmed began playing with drummer Leon LeDoux and bassist Paul Inder, as well as gearing up for their 3rd record to be. The group has been playing the greater Los Angeles area over the past two years and currently resides near Atwater Village.