A Hawk And A Hacksaw – A story of impression

My fingernails have been outlined with dirt for over a week. The constancy of my movements have kept me from breathing effectively yet alone given me the opportunity to properly clean out the ground I have collected between Novosibirsk and Barnaul. Pausing, in between rock and tree, I stoop down to grab a thin twig laying between my ragged, muddied excuse for boots. With the twig, I carve away the build up while admiring the snow peaked Altai Mountains in the distance. I know I am close…

This fictitious account of a journey from yesterworld is a precursor to the foreign born montage of valinki, rivers, and gunfire that our lonesome traveler is about to encounter. Amidst a backdrop of villages where the babushki all grow old together, Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, Beirut) and Heather Trost of A Hawk And A Hacksaw have crafted a world hidden far away from our western ears and eyes, one that is draped in the mysteries of Tsigani dance and Balkan brass. Where other artists bring these eastern epithets to the west, Barnes has taken a path less worn and traveled to the edges of Eastern Europe and villages bordering the Ukraine to write and record his new album The Way The Wind Blows. Reminiscent of A Silver Mt. Zion arrangements with Neutral Milk Hotel playing in the background, AHAAH brings together the ancient scales of the east with drunken chants that will export you far from any westernized anything.

[mp3] A Hawk And A Hacksaw – God Bless The Ottoman Empire
[mp3] A Hawk And A Hacksaw – In The River
BONUS [mp3] A Hawk And A Hacksaw – A Black And White Rainbow (from Darkness At Noon)

AHAAH's new album The Way The Wind Blows comes out October 10. Pre-order your copy at Amazon right now. AHAAH is on eMusic.

10/21/06 - Troubadour (supporting Beirut) (TIX)