State Bird - Marching Thru the Wilderness

You'll find State Bird traipsing on the land bridge that connects Page France to Animal Collective, with a plethora of thrift store instruments (kazoos, shakers, recorders) and woodland tendencies. Marching Thru the Wilderness is too joyous and cheerful-sounding to really fall under the "freak-folk" strain of things, sounding like Snow White's dwarves with a predilection for marching band drums and "la la" mantras. The band is almost too precious for description, but can crank out a song that's almost totally goofball (the title track, and its chattery, faux-falsetto "We sing a song in your direction/we hope that heaven gets good reception") and then turn right around and drop the more somber tones of "Have I Forgot." There's a lot of stuff going on these days in this vein, especially with a Christian bent. I don't know the low-down on the band's faith, but songs like "He Is the Light" are a good indication of what they're feeling. Set 'em up with Daniel Smith, Sufjan and Michael Nau, because that's where State Bird seems to be flying. [www.therecordmachine.net]