Thunderbird Divine Premiere Title-Track from The Hand of Man EP
Psychedelphia four-piece Thunderbird Divine release their new EP, The Hand of Man, on March 28 through Salt of the Earth Records. It’s only three tracks and about 12 minutes long, but The Hand of Man works quickly to blow the roof off of where Thunderbird Divine were early last year when they made their full-length debut with the rousing Magnasonic (review here), with the three-and-a-half-minute opening title-track throwing its Fu Manchu-style fuzz and riff-worth-remembering out the airlock into an open space of guest organ and backing vocal arrangements in preparation for the Monster Magnetism of the ensuing six-minute centerpiece “Boote’s Void,” a triumph and moment of arrival certainly for bassist Adam Scott if not the rest of the band — though also definitely the rest of the band, as the guitars of Flynn Lawrence (also sitar; yup) and Erik Caplan (also vocals, lap steel, theremin, etc.) grow richer in tone with the surrounding keys and drummer Mike Stuart shows his style as malleable either to the swing of “The Hand of Man” and the roll of “Boote’s Void” as well as the move over to percussion alongside Caplan for the psych-bluesy instrumental finale “’88 Testadoon,” a hypnotic instrumental that one only wishes jammed on for about nine minutes instead of the two it does.
Run-on sentence much? Hell yes, but The Hand of Man functions that way as well, with one piece moving fluidly into the next and into the last, the songs building off each other along the way. Granted, “’88 Testadoon” is something of an epilogue, but even
that brings a sense of patience and atmosphere to the proceedings that bolster the whole outing and broaden the band’s sound overall. Magnasonic showcased no lack of potential on the part of the former Wizard Eye and Skeleton Hands members, who also recently took on The Yardbirds‘ “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” — which one only hopes will see a physical pressing of one sort or another soon — and The Hand of Man finds them working quickly to fulfill that potential casting a melodic swirl in “The Hand of Man” made stronger through the backing vocals of Brittany Marie and Avalicious and the keys of Charles Newman. Hate to say it — actually I don’t — but Thunderbird Divine might end up having to play shows as The Thunderbird Divine All-Stars if this keeps up, because what they’re doing here really, really works, right up to Caplan channeling his inner Dave Wyndorf as the deceptively patient cosmic unfurling of “Boote’s Void” takes place before the harder fuzz kicks in, righteous and spaced and soulful in likewise expanding measure.
That’s always the question though with a release like The Hand of Man — perhaps even more so as it’s coming after Thunderbird Divine‘s debut album — in terms of how indicative it is of their sound moving forward versus is it a one-off, the band trying an experiment that just happens to work exceedingly well. Hell if I know. Maybe they don’t either. What’s exciting about The Hand of Man though, aside from the material itself, which is electrified in any number of figurative senses, is that it makes Thunderbird Divine a less predictable band on the whole. Going into their inevitable second album, whenever it might arrive — shit, the sooner the better — I feel like I have less of a grasp after listening to these three songs on what to expect for a follow-up to Magnasonic than I did before the EP came along, and that is invariably a good thing. Whether they continue to build on the fluidity as presented here in a style that, were it not so short, would definitely be album-ish, or push into something rawer in terms of arrangement or again decide to take an unanticipated direction, they’re very quickly beginning to earn a basic level of trust that they can carry their songwriting through any number of diverse applications. Dudes have it down, is what I’m saying. Let the nonsense move you, because the nonsense is awesome.
The Hand of Man was recorded at Retro City Studios in Philly and Cottage Sounds Unlimited in Brooklyn. You can stream the premiere of the title-track below, followed by a quote from Caplan on the making of the song, that Yardbirds cover, and a trailer for an upcoming recording documentary on the making of the EP.
Please enjoy:
Erik Caplan on “The Hand of Man”:
This track started as a riff that existed before I joined up with these dudes back in 2017. Flynn is a masterful riffologist, and this one has a lovely swagger. We previously tried to cram this riff into a bunch of other song structures, and none of them were quite right. Eventually we realized we needed to let it breathe, and it developed an identity of its own. After that, the song grew naturally into its final form. I love Mike’s break before the bridge. It’s a small moment, but it feels very natural. We wanted it to be a banger, but we also wanted it to have a foreboding, scattered feeling as an overtone to the groove in the bridge.
Basic tracking took place at Retro City Studios in Philadelphia, where we nailed down the essence of the song, my main vocals and all of the backing vocal arrangements. Picture me acting as a lunatic choir director from behind a baby grand piano as the ladies (Avy and Brittany) attempted to decipher my conducting for the backing vocals… it was pretty amusing.
Joe Boldizar and the crew at Retro City got excellent, organic sounds for us in the main tracking phase. Adam and I then took the track to Cottage Sounds Unlimited in Brooklyn to add the Wurlitzer, B3 Organ and lap steel guitar. Charles Newman is a talented musician, and keys are a specialty for him. He interpreted our (admittedly offbeat) sonic requests brilliantly. When we brought the tracks back to Retro City for mixing, Joe sort of instinctively knew what we wanted. It was a very smooth process overall.
The lyrics are my musings about a documentary called Discovering Bigfoot. The filmmaker, Todd Standing, put a lot of time and effort into making this sort of visual poem for the Bigfoot population he clearly loves and respects. I’m not saying his research is flawed or anything like that, but his approach was certainly a little unconventional, as I suppose it should be, considering the subject matter. I’m not sure he proved his thesis by making this film, but he succeeded in providing entertainment.
Thunderbird Divine “Hand Of Man”
Available @ www.SaltOfTheEarthRecords.com
Thunderbird Divine is
Erik Caplan: electric guitars, vocals, theremin, lap steel guitar, percussion, vocal arrangements
Flynn Lawrence: electric guitars, electric sitar
Mike Stuart: drums, percussion
Adam Scott: bass, synth, 3-string strum stick, percussion
With
Brittany Marie and Avalicious: backing vocals
(Additional backing vocal arrangement by Brittany Marie on “Boote’s Void”)
Mike Scarpone: djembe on “Boote’s Void”
Charles Newman: keys, synths on “Hand of Man” and “Boote’s Void”
Thunderbird Divine, The Hand of Man recording documentary trailer
Thunderbird Divine, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”
Thunderbird Divine on Thee Facebooks
Thunderbird Divine on Instagram
Thunderbird Divine on Bandcamp
Salt of the Earth Records on Thee Facebooks
Salt of the Earth Records website
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