We’re packed and ready to head to the west coast in the morning after a week back home. It’s been good to see friends old and new, and to get a snapshot of northern Europe before the volcano and the eastern US in a gloriously rainy spring. Along the way we’ve done plenty of horsing around and some sleepy morning radio sessions – here are some videos from one we liked, filmed around the time of South by Southwest for Radio K in Minneapolis, including a cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Mother of Violence” and a banjo-led “Landscape at Speed” from TGA. Bonus! Here’s some live footage from Mad Planet in Milwaukee in early April. Our friends at High Frequency captured “Hidden Lakes”.
We’re also in the middle of planning out the rest of the year, which will include a return trip to Europe (if the ash cloud ever clears) and, we hope, parts of the US we’ve missed this time around. I’ll leave you with this mysterious clip, from a reading of Thor’s book in Lawrence Kansas…a memorable moment, to be sure (JM).
Available for preorder now at your friendly local record shop, on your favorite internet music service, and/or at our Bandcamp page.
My sub rosa 2024 speaking tour—which began ten days ago with several events in (actual) Iowa and one in (virtual) Scotland—concludes this Saturday in London, where I'll be speaking at 2PM at Kings College as part of the mad and marvelous TetZooCon. tetzoo.com/convention
It will surprise no one that the title of my talk is "Why the Caracaras Would Like to Meet You".
For avoidance of doubt: all of the above is 100% true. As is the below:
A week ago, I was reading some new work from the pulpit of a chapel in Grinnell, Iowa, and it hit me: I hadn't made sounds into a microphone in front of real live humans since “A Most Remarkable Creature” was published in 2021. Which was a very strange feeling. I've missed it.
I'd like to thank the very kind folks at Grinnell College—especially Hai-Dang Phan, his students, the Center for Prairie Studies, and the great Grinnell College Birding Club, for making a fella feel welcome out there in the wild wild midwest. And I look forward to finally meeting Darren Naish and his fellow travelers this weekend, and anyone else who cares to turn up. It's a good talk, and I'll take questions. You can ask me anything. (JM)
I loved your incredible book!
Once in a while, the stars align. This week, the unique and excellent longform nonfiction platform Alexander (Alxr.com) published a new piece of mine called "Secret Gardens of the Deep Dark"—which will appear in a much-revised and expanded form in my upcoming book on the once and future life of Antarctica. The book is still a couple of years away, but this is what I'm up to these days when I'm not working on music.
I'm glad to have a small taste of the book out in the world—but the real treat, for me, was learning that Alexander managed to get Andrew Scott, (from Sherlock, Fleabag, All Of Us Strangers, The Talented Mr. Ripley, etc) to read the piece aloud.
Hearing his voice reading my words was a bit surreal, to say the least; I can now say with confidence that if you need your writing punched up, a deep-voiced Irish actor will infuse it with a lot more charm and intrigue than yet another revision.
And Alexander is a subscription-only site, but worth it; among the many excellent pieces in its archives is a mind-blowing and wonderful piece on dugongs by J.M. Ledgard (narrated by David Tennant).
www.alxr.com/series/secret-gardens-of-the-deep-dark
This Saturday, August 3rd, we're hosting an online premiere and live chat for the officlal album-length video for our last record, The Great Awakening, at 3PM EST.
We released three selections from it when the album came out, but the rest haven't been seen by anyone outside the band. They were filmed and directed by Emily Cross (of Loma and Cross Record).
youtu.be/8eN3s7s9YBM?si=dzHtobUhumAMxkZH
We hope to see you there. (JM)
