We have this (former) friend who a few years back was fully on board with the Birds Aren’t Real conspiracy which claims birds as a species went extinct some time ago thanks to a secret CIA plot to replace them with feather-covered drones made to spy on the populace thus explaining why birds perch on phone wires (recharging their batteries) and poop on your car (tracking device) and oh yeah JFK was killed cuz he wasn’t on board with the bird replacement plot just in case any of this was starting to sound feasible at all…
…and while Birds Aren’t Real was supposedly all part of a prank to demonstrate how low the bar has gotten for getting people to buy into preposterous BS theories what with our brains being numbed by all the paranoia, hate, and misinformation swirling around lately not to mention wars, famine, and democracy in decline which seriously everyone just needs to smoke a J and chill the F out for a second and look at what we’re facing and let’s all say together “we got this” cuz we’re all rational human beings here aren’t we, aren’t we…?!?
…but anyways the point being how today’s subject—Manny Nomikos, better known as Ilithios to those outside his social circles and when backed by the Ilithios Big Band especially (also called Ilithios, it’s a PJ Harvey thing) comprised of long-time companions and collaborators—is not only a strong proponent of birds, as made abundantly clear over the course of his second LP as Ilithios, Every Bird Ever, which saw release about a month ago, but also is a living, breathing antidote or better yet “course correction” to the cynicism and nihilism that’s taken root…
…with any such ugliness held at bay over the course of Every Bird Ever‘s generous running time (proper album length!) with music that swells and surges like the blood coursing through your veins (raw and elemental, heart-stirring and life-affirming) and lyrics that don’t skimp on the emotional nakedness…
…or put another way “I’m not ashamed any more” which is fortunate cuz Manny has no reason to be and certainly not for a non-formally trained voice that radiates warmth and humanity and even if he misses a pitch here or there, well, that’s authenticity baby (our stance is that all rock singers should be banned from formal training except metal singers of course) and a perfect fit for the music, like chamomile tea spiked with ouzo which is Greece’s national spirit in honor of Manny’s Grecian roots natch…
…which is essentially how we’d describe the music on Every Bird Ever—gentle and soothing except when it’s not (check out those furious guitar breaks in “Conservative Heartthrob” below) and indeed live Manny pulls out all the tops with the testifying, gesticulating charisma of a white-suit-wearing street preacher cum ringmaster moved by the spirit so move on over Wayne Coyne you’re got some competition to your giant crowd-surfing space bubble as teased by head nod to “Do You Realize?” on the LP’s second track “Turn Off”…
…but first, track one, the abbreviated title track, which isn’t a song exactly but a barely minute-long palette-cleansing intro, perfectly setting the tone for what’s to come with actual birds taking on the role of lead vocalists soon wedded to a angelic choir of airy overdubbed soaring vocals (more of these to come) like the Beach Boys if they went dream-pop and signed to 4AD and it’s all a good indicator of what’s to come…
…cuz Ilithios recall a time not too long ago when indie rock was chock-a-block full of bands expert at writing anthemic odes to holding on to hope and getting through rough times with a ragged-glory resilience and musical uplift, bands like Flaming Lips, Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, plus lots more you get the idea and when Manny and Rosie Slater sing “don’t you wanna throw this life away” on the advance single “Athens” they make the notion of pulling up roots and moving far away sound nothing less than rhapsodic esp. when set against an endless expanse of open sonic horizon where “even the last mistake won’t change this”…
…on an album brimming with humble self-assessments but where despair gets alchemized into something like grace and there’s something so New York about transcendence borne via suffering (“this town will get the best of you / this town might get the very best version of you”) which probably has something to do with it being a city of immigrants which Manny kinda-sorta is but not really, raised between the Big Apple and Athens (the nearly town of Korydallos to be specific) by a Greek father and a Korean mother now that’s some New York shiz yo (“I’m a million different people all the time”) …
…and with the range of strong, distinctive female vocalists Ilithios teams with on the record, a dynamic is created that’s ”broken, beaten, and ferociously romantic, reveling in the brutal beauty of their surroundings like a heathen Adam & Eve” to steal a quote from a review of Arcade Fire’s Funeral which applies here too, two of said co-singers being drawn from Ilithios itself and the others frequent billmates and friends with their own other projects, close musical mates basically…
…and you need friends when things get tough cuz who else is gonna give it to you totally straight (“like an open-ended question / you exist in a loneliness“) while lending sympathy and comfort (“here’s a flower for your losses / here’s a knife for your enemies”) as the music rises up to agree, with various other songs’ narrators admitting there’s “no sense in our senses” when surrounded by“liars, cheats, emotional thieves” which is enough to make one ask “is this the best and then we die?”…
…all of which sounds rather dire but comes across more buoyant than despairing thanks to the vitality of the music in part which makes room for everything from chamber pop to glam stomp both heard on the “Big Bones” that with an assist from A Very Special Episode goes from a mid-tempo groove you’d expect to hear from a Balkan street band to a more Talking Head-ish vibe before a chorus that’s more like glam catwalk music which makes for quite a trajectory then compare that to “Vapors” which sees Ilithios’ bassist Julie Rozansky (Basalt Jar) harmonizing sweetly over a chill groove which makes even lines like “It’s over / I never had too much luck in this world” sound really not so bad in route to a yacht-rock worthy chorus Christine McVie wouldn’t throw out of bed…
…and if you think that sounds like some intriguing contrast just wait ’til the album closing “Die” and “Old” which make getting old and dying sound like a spine-tingling journey into the abyss with Allison Langerak taking on lead vocal duties on the latter which you better have some hankies at the ready cuz it’s an achingly beautiful ballad with Allison observing that “the saddest thing I ever heard / was ‘I’m sorry that I got too old / for you to love me’”)…
…with the birds making one last guest vocal appearance too which is reassuring considering how on “How We’ve Faded” it was noted that “for every dead bird that we buried / for ever sad though we ignored / we just break a little more” and when it comes to the pressing question of “what’s with all the birds on Every Bird Ever?” Manny/Ilithios had the following to say:
“The significance of birds, which appear throughout the record in field recordings, artwork, and lyrics, is their symbolism as free beings, bringers of luck, healing, but also as tragic figures. Magpies in some cultures are revered, whereas in others they are a nuisance, or pest…and therefore exterminated. Other birds are misunderstood, the Coucal builds nests with grasses believed to have medicinal qualities.. So people will go to the nests, break the legs of the nestlings in order to get the parent Coucal to bring this supposed medicinal grass to be harvested and sold. By giving meaning to nature, we both mythologize birds, and devastate them. If you examine birds enough…as with any object, person, or animal, you can find the parallels to our own lives. But not cats, they make no sense.”
…and hey not wonder cats are so popular in our current sense-deprived world where “the challenges of our generation feel amplified and the lines of reality and hyperbole are beyond blurred. So many things feel out of reach. Will I find love, will I find a home, will I die before I’m ready? This is an album that attempts to capture the feeling of confronting impossibility with reckless optimism. Embracing sadness, imperfection, and joy equally“…
…which puts a nice bow on it really and who amongst usw isn’t yearning for a greater sense of connection outside screens and un-social media cuz “there’s too many ways to turn off” as Ilithios puts it on, well, “Turn Off” which is about yearning for just the opposite, namely “tuning in,” with a burbling synth tone swooping across the sonic spectrum like someone turning the dial of old-fashion shortwave radio dial searching for a frequency to connect with cuz we gotta “take care of each other”…
…and be sure to stay tuned for PART TWO coming soon where we drop a new Ilithios music video and give a mini-oral history for Every Bird Ever as viewed by the Manny’s collaborators…
EVERY BIRD EVER
released April 16, 2024
Produced by JEFF BERNER and ILITHIOS
Engineered and Mixed by JEFF BERNER
Mastered by CARL SAFF
Recorded at Studio G Brooklyn and Cavebird
Ilithios is MANNY NOMIKOS and his band consisting of
ANA BECKER – guitars / vocals
JUSTIN GONZALEZ – guitars
JULIE ROZANSKY – bass / vocals
DON LAVIS – drums
The players on the record also include
ROSIE SLATER (New Myths, Thick, Catty) – drums
BENJI REYNOLDS – drums
STEPHANIE GUNTHER (Desert Sharks) – vocals
PATRICK PORTER (A Very Special Episode) – guitar
KASEY HEISLER (A Very Special Episode) – vocals
ALLISON LANGERAK – vocals
GAVIN DUNAWAY (Libel) – guitar
JEFF BERNER – guitar / synths/ vocals/ percussion
NICK LAFALCE – drums / saxophone
Album artwork by ANDRÉA DEFELICE
