The View From the Riverbank: New From Futurebirds

Athens' Futurebirds grabbed my attention about a year ago when I first heard Johnny Utah. There's something about that tone - finely tuned banjo, the whistle of a glass slide on low-gauge strings - that fits right in with we might call the musical New American.

And good news just reached me: the bearded Georgian low-fi stars have announced a new album. Baba Yaga, named for the Russian folkloric Earth goddess/witch/fertility symbol (whose house sometimes walked on crow's feet, thus the album art), will hit the waves on April 16. In the meantime, here's the video for the recent single "Virginia Slims."