The Bollard Bulletin for June 2, 2025
Local Music Monday: Identifying State Birds
Local Music Monday
State Birds is the musical project of DJ Nelson, a multi-instrumentalist who plays drums in the dreamy indie-rock band Little Oso. That — ahem — supergroup has already spawned Finger Food, the new electro-pop outfit by Oso bassist and backing vocalist Dana Guth, which won our Critic’s Choice award for Album of the Summer this year. State Birds’ self-titled debut album was also in the running for that prestigious imaginary honor, and tracks from both releases appear on The Bollard’s forthcoming Maine Summer of 25 playlist (stay tuned here later this month for that link).
State Birds has a warm and breezy feel that makes it ideal for summer listening, and the subject matter matches. Opener “Nashua Watershed” is perfect rafting music — assuming you’re running a river with low-class rapids — full of strummed and shimmering acoustic guitar and gilded with easygoing sax by Andrew Bedard.
“Scarecrow” is set in summer, in a corporate drugstore whose manager is clearly jumping the gun. “CVS what are we doin’?” Nelson sings on the chorus, joined by Emily Irving (another Summer mix hit-maker) on backing vocals. “With your cellophane smile / In the Halloween aisle / In July.”
“Lawn Chairs” — ibid. “Apathetic me / I love a waste of time,” Nelson sings in an atmosphere so amiable that you wanna pass him a cold one. “Hex Blue,” similarly sweetened with Irving’s voice, is a shorter piece about getting stuck inside streaming shit. “Little Free Library” and “Apples” extend the outdoorsy vibe, the latter inserting a beautifully hushed bridge along these contemplative ambles through the forest.
“Old Quilt” strikes a more somber tone — elegiac, even — and ends with an extended recording of wind chimes. Sure enough, the songs that follow are all a bit different, a series of instrumentals that invite your own summer memories of “Little Woods,” “Old Canada Road,” “Rec League Champions” and “Poppin’ Wheelies.”
I wouldn’t call State Birds an “ambitious” release, an attempt to break new sonic ground or attract notice, much less any fortune or fame. Rather, it’s a document of Nelson’s intriguing musical musings, finely crafted in the home studio of Portland psychedelic-shoegaze artist Darksoft, whose “Iloveyou” was a highlight of last year’s All Roads Trip playlist. And it’s a welcome reminder that music shared with friends around a lakeside campfire is always the best music in the world.
Highlights
Formed in the other Portland in 2011, MSHR is a collective that “collaboratively builds and explores sculptural electronic systems,” according to their bio. “Their performances and installations integrate electrical signals and human presence, weaving dense networks of causality to form audiovisual environments that babble with life-like current.” Um, hell yeah you wanna check that out! The local sonic collaborative Noise Circle begins the mind bending at The Apohadion Theater (107 Hanover St., Portland) at 8 p.m. Tix: $10-$20 (pay-what-you-can; all ages).
The laid-back Chicago indie-rock band Discus either needs to fire their booking agent or buy them a bottle of bubbly for scheduling a Monday night show in Gardiner, Maine, at Johnson Hall Opera House (280 Water St.) — depending how this gig goes. It starts at 7:30 p.m. Tix: $22 (all ages).
This just in: Monday nights are a great time to see live music in Maine! At Oysthers Raw Bar & Bubbly in Bath (97 Commercial St.), they’ve been hosting a Monday night concert series on their riverside deck, and tonight local singer/songwriters Lauren Crosby and Aaron Nadeau perform there for free at 5 p.m. (likely all-ages). Who knew? You do, now.