Andrew Bird album to be released as vinyl set

Originally released in 2001, the third and final album from Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, The Swimming Hour, will be available October 20th on vinyl for the first time as a Deluxe 2x Vinyl LP set (Gatefold Jacket / 45rpm / 140 Gram vinyl). Newly remastered under the watchful eyes of Bird himself, this significant album was produced by Mike Napolitano (Blind Melon, the Neville Brothers, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers) and is the last recording to feature Bird’s backing band, Bowl of Fire, consisting of Kevin O'Donnell (drums and percussion), Nora O'Connor (backing vocals), Colin Bunn (guitar), and Josh Hirsh (bass). The Swimming Hour is considered a precursor to Bird’s subsequent solo records.

As a special addition to this vinyl package, the original CD album art has been reinterpreted by artist Jay Ryan, turning the photograph on the original cover into a pop art illustration. Ryan is the founder of the Skokie-based screenprint poster workshop, The Bird Machine, Inc.

Bird describes the album as, “when the everyday becomes incredulous to you”. He relates this as a feeling he experienced in 2000 when walking through a roughed-up neighborhood in his hometown of Chicago. Bird was thinking of the direction of his next album when “everything got really strange-feeling …everything became really slow”. Andrew Bird had entered a state of mind he refers to as the “swimming hour”.

This timeless collection has received tremendous critical acclaim, described as: “one of the year’s most refreshing releases”(NME), “a stroke of genius” (Pitchfork), “jaw-droppingly spectacular” (Magnet), and having some of the '’best songs of the year” (Entertainment Weekly).

TRACK LISTING:

Side 1
1. Two Way Action
2. Core and Rind
3. Why?
4. 11:11

Side 2
1. Case In Point
2. Too Long
3. Way Out West

Side 3
1. Waiting to Talk
2. Fatal Flower Garden
3. Satisfied

Side 4
1. Headsoak
2. How Indiscreet
3. Dear Old Greenland