Sparta Philharmonic on tour

SPARTA PHILHARMONIC

TOUR
07.14.10 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Jack Sprat
07.17.10 - Atlanta, GA @ WonderRoot
07.19.10 - John's Creek, GA @ the Red Rabbit
07.22.10 - St. Petersburg, FL @ Fubar
07.28.10 - Austin, TX @ Hole In The Wall
08.02.10 - Tucson, AZ @ the Hut
08.06.10 - Los Angeles, CA @ the Tribal Cafe
08.10.10 - Portland, OR @ Plan B
08.11.10 - Seattle, WA @ the Rendezvous Theater
08.13.10 - Boulder, CO @ Astroland
08.18.10 - Iowa City, IA @ Public Space 1
08.20.10 - Sioux Falls, SD @ Club David
08.21.10 - Minneapolis, MN @ Terminal
08.22.10 - Chicago, IL @ the Double Door
08.23.10 - Chicago, IL @ Silvie's Lounge
08.26.10 - Syracuse,NY @ TBA

ABOUT THE BAND:
Following the release of their last full-length (2006's Paper-Mache Mountains), NJ multi-instrumental duo Sparta Philharmonic spent the next four years tending to their songs like they were flowers in a secret garden. They built themselves a completely analog studio for under a grand, scouring craigslist, thrift stores, and garage sales for unwanted recording equipment.

Then, they proceeded to carefully adapt their new music to their bizarre sonic bio-sphere, eventually honing their arrangements to include bits and pieces of hand-held cassette recorders, old-school 4-tracks, and one very resilient reel-to-reel machine.

They brought in friends from their tight-knit North-Jersey music scene, and peppered their whip-smart oeuvres for cello, guitar, and drums with densely nuanced vocal contributions from members of The Metal Hearts, Delicate Steve, Future Future, and many other major players from their small but vibrant arts community.

All the while, brothers Greg and Alex kept their heads-on-straight, finishing college, completing three ambitious tours that they booked and promoted themselves (often performing with national acts such as Dirty Projectors, Matt and Kim, Man Man, Pattern Is Movement, and many others), and staying as active as humanly possible academically, musically, and politically.

Greg made records with The Metal Hearts, Circa Survive, and Richard Cortez. He also wrote extensively on feminist and queer issues, publishing essays on men and feminism as well as contemporary political issues concerning the queer community in zines (Hoax), legit print periodicals (Voice-Male, Out In Jersey), and one rather thin anthology (Men Speak Out, ed. Shira Tarrant). Alex became a pilot, recorded country and folk music with members of The Metal Hearts, and worked towards his degree in Political Science while campaigning hard for progressive candidates and causes in and around Philadelphia.

For the most part, Greg and Alex Bortnichak lead remarkably separate lives for being the only two members of northern NJ's most stalwart experimental punk band. Communicating mostly through email and the music itself, the brothers bring oil-and-water diversity to their strange brand of punk, folk, rock, noise, whatever you want to call whatever is that they do... And (trans)migratory birds soars as a result.

Simultaneously confounding and catchy, lo-fi and layered, minimalist and massive, this record is essentially an hour-long homage to having it both ways. Lyrically, (trans)migratory birds explores multiplicity in much the same way. Most of the songs approach binaries like life and death, belonging and alienation, past and present, good and evil, etc., with a lack of judgment that seems to suggest that Greg and Alex get their mojo from tapping into the fluidity of it all.