Through the Sparks

Through the Sparks of Birmingham, Ala., recently finished its second full-length recording, a follow-up to 2007's "Lazarus Beach," the band's third official release with Skybucket Records. "Worm Moon Waning" was recorded and produced by the band at its home studio?christened Alamalibu, after the car that resided in its first location. Through the Sparks' and Alamalibu's current home is a basement in east Birmingham... a stone's toss from the Bottletree venue, which has been a focal point of Birmingham's pulsating and incestuous music scene.

"Worm Moon Waning" was recorded and produced by the band at its home studio?christened Alamalibu, after the car that resided in its first location.

Through the Sparks' and Alamalibu's current home is a basement in east Birmingham... a stone's toss from the Bottletree venue, which has been a focal point of Birmingham's pulsating and incestuous music scene.

"Lazarus Beach" earned critical praise from Pitchfork, Allmusic Guide, Alarm Magazine, Pop Matters, etc., and thousands downloaded it. The music was called everything from baroque-blues to psychedelic rock, to progressive-folk ... noisy orchestral-pop, the ever-vague "Americana," piano-rock, guitar-rock, art-pop, lit-rock, jangle-pop ... among other descriptions. The record was sprawling in its intentions and represented a lot of what the band creates, in a dense 37 minutes.

"Worm Moon Waning" was pared down from nearly 20 songs, to a more focused nine.

This record has a much more live feel. In fact, for nearly half the record, engineer Lynn Bridges (Devendra Banhart) was brought in over a snowy three-day weekend to man the controls so the band could record while playing in the same room together. The result is a much more intense dynamic in the ebb and flow of the songs.

Plans for recording another record are in the works as the band plays shows in the fall, including CMJ Music Marathon and Next Big Nashville. Through the Sparks has been very fortunate to play shows with Midlake, The Great Lake Swimmers, The French Kicks, Earlimart, White Rabbits,Taylor Hollingsworth, 13ghosts, Vulture Whale ...