Bird Bones in the Bughouse

Dark, intense, noir-ish indie rock: cool post-rock, experimental, and jazz blend. Gritty arrangements with guitar, drums, and upright bass, with tenor male vocals. Additional instruments include violin, viola, trumpet, sax, piano, female backup vocals. Seattle trio’s follow-up EP to 2003 debut, Submariner. Bassist and drummer are brothers. Group used to be called the Sweet Science way back when. ALL CLEAN. NO FCC VIOLATIONS.
1) “Ossuary” (4:46). Slow-tempo. Creepy and pretty. Percussion until 0:10, where bass and guitar come in. 0:27 male vox (higher register). Good alternating slow beats with fast guitar riffs. 1:02 slows and quiets down intensely until 1:33. 2:29 vox get into falsetto. 3:01 to 3:06 almost no sound. 3:07 comes back with bridge. Fades out at about 4:40.
2)*“Gamma Knife” (4:51). Stark. Mid-tempo, creepy, guitar in minor key by itself until 0:14. 0:15 intro of slow, intense bass. 0:28 percussion creeps in, gets a bit more elaborate at 0:55. 1:24 male vox. 2:19 some dissonant guitar. 3:30 add piano. 4:20 piano goes crazy with lots of sharps. Closes out with drums and bass. Stop at 4:49.
3) “Film Strip Collage” (5:28). Slow, quiet. Gentle guitar intro. 0:26 soft percussion and male vox in. 1:10 pizzicato violin at its own beat. Back at 2:31 (sounds like two). Barely audible 3:26 to 3:48. 4:27 violin solo. End at about 5:20.
4) *“Cuz She’s Me” (5:23). A bit catchier, in their noir-ish style. Guitar, bass intro. Male vox and bass in at 0:16. 0:47 constant backup vocal or string until 1:18. 1:17 change of arrangements - more crashing percussion. 3:21 focus on guitar chords. 3:26 sax sneaks in as a buzz, grows to solo-like focus starting at 3:37, to 4:24. Male vox back in. 5:01 crazy guitar riff closes song. Ends at 5:15.
5)* “Sign Your Name” (6:04). Cover of Terrence Trent D’Arby song. Unsettling and stunning. Lots of flowing strings (almost harp-like arrangement). Male vox in at 0:31. 1:36 a couple peeps of sax. 2:26 bits of fuzzed out record-playing. 3:00 majestic trumpet background to vox. 4:00 focus on viola with some gentle sound experimentation in background. 5:11 long brass chord in background. Ends at 5:59 -margot