Random Records with Steve O

Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds - Keep Walkin' Pal

As has been made clear here before, I’m a big fan of Brendan Kelly’s work. So while a new Brenden Kelly and the Wandering Birds record was announced and, relatively quickly, released, it was quite a pleasant surprise. And it should be pretty clear what you’re getting here. Keep Walkin’ Pal is very much a spiritual successor to 2012’s I'd Rather Die Than Live Forever; it’s got the same twisted lyrics, that same dark vibe, that same weird-Americana-meets-punk feel to the songs. From the mellow, reflective opener “Keep Walkin’ Pal,” (“In a shitty club where I’m the last band member / I blacked out seventeen of my best years”), through an eclectic mix of jaunty tunes, to the straight up weird numbers, ending with the heavily programmed/electronics closer of “I’m the Man,” Keep Walkin’ Pal is an experience; a trip (with all the drug-addled connotations that word carries) through the dark imaginative corners of Kelly’s musical inventions.

And what a damn good and catchy trip it is. “Shitty Margarita” is a catchy as hell song revolving around little more than drinking shitty margaritas. “Huggz” is absolutely hilarious and fantastic, with some sweet synth lines in the background. Lyrically everything about “Huggz” makes me think of that Parks & Rec episode, where Andy Dwyer (played by Chris Pratt) has to change the lyrics of his songs to play a kid’s birthday party. This is probably my favorite BK and the Wandering Birds song yet. The synths are in the background of a lot of the songs, adding a really trippy and engaging vibe with their presence. They mirror the rest of the soundscape perfectly, giving a lot of depth to the tracks; “The Lies” is a perfect example of this. “Black Cat Boy” is probably the most TLA/Falcon song here. The whole song, but especially the intro and outro, bring to mind “The Redness in the West,” but twisting into a MIDI soundscape instead of a punk-rock singalong. “The Ballad of Buffalo Bill” is probably the closest thing here to what one would expect a punk luminary to record on an “acoustic” album. Elsewhere “Boardin’ USA!” is a totally entertaining take on surf rock about America’s favorite torture method, that I never would have imagined being as much fun as it is, a seriously goofy-sounding interlude near the middle of the record.

Keep Walkin’ Pal is weird. It pretty much owns up to that without reservations. But there’s also a familiarity here. Kelly’s voice is instantly recognizable. His lyrics are distinct too, as few match his twisted, black humor while maintaining a storyteller quality to them. If you dig anything done under the Wandering Birds moniker, you’ll dig this too. It’s not easily classifiable, and is the kind of record that people other than those going to every Lawrence Arms show (like myself) would enjoy. For its self-proclaimed weirdness, it is easily digestible. You probably need to listen to it below: