We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Girard Freeloader

by Norwegian Arms

supported by
Yuu
Yuu thumbnail
Yuu This is one of those albums that makes me happy whenever I listen t it. :) Favorite track: How We Move.
jaketriola
jaketriola thumbnail
jaketriola Influenced by travel, this record also influenced travel and location association for myself, blasting How We Move on a trip through DC, Resource Sucker in an upstate NY Appalachian adventure, and Find Truth back in my college dorm while battling a bout of bronchitis. Excellent work once again, Mr. Birthday. Favorite track: Find Truth.
Jake Kelp
Jake Kelp thumbnail
Jake Kelp When I listen I imagine memories from the past, but they're animated. Animation memories. Favorite track: How We Move.
Jakob Helms
Jakob Helms thumbnail
Jakob Helms Been waiting for a long time. Spoilers: it's good. Favorite track: West Queen West.
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    White cassette w/ pink type, w/ J card hand silkscreened by our talented homie Dan over at Endless Daze records. But wait, there's more? *YES* a sticker with the freeloader himself on it. Only 100 made, sounds good as hell, comes with download.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Girard Freeloader via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 100 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $5 USD or more 

     

  • "Official Zine" w/ musings, poems & photos + download
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    The true "official" release of "Girard Freeloader" in vivid *FULL COLOR*

    Continuing in the tradition of previous albums, this booklet contains photographs, musings, poetry, and the lyrics to Girard Freeloader songs. At times, funny, sad, and of course self-deprecating. Everything in this book is original work by Mr. Keith Birthday himself, including layout/stapling etc. Also comes with a download!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Girard Freeloader via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
How We Move 04:27
2.
Find Truth 03:18
3.
Visions 03:24
4.
5.
6.
7.
New Sky 05:09
8.
9.

about

The term ‘Norwegian Arms’, according to front-person and sole founding member Keith Birthday, describes the act of “grabbing slivers of fleeting moments across the globe, but in a self deprecating way.” Throughout the band’s existence, Birthday has done just that. The band’s debut record Wolf Like a Stray Dog captured a year of frozen solitude spent in the Siberian Taiga. Snapshots of intimate personal experiences mixed with stories of secret cities and musings on language and culture. Where Wolf focused on a specific feeling attached to a singular place, Norwegian Arms’ new album Girard Freeloader (out 1/20 on Mutual Crush) applies this concept to the entire world, with songs taking inspiration from the jungles of Peru, the forests of Washington state, and Keith Birthday’s native Philadelphia.

Keith (also known in more professional circles as Brendan M) uses these places as jumping off points to ruminate about the complications of living in this modern world through the eyes of a “Freeloader”, the listless narrator who is searching simultaneously for a cup of coffee and his own deepest feelings. “West Queen West” turns a weekend trip to Toronto into thoughts about traveling as a break from the monotony of everyday Internet-centric life. “East Hollywood” finds Birthday considering how distance and growth changes relationships over time while visiting friends in California. But the place that seemingly influences Girard Freeloader the most is the city of Philadelphia, where Keith found himself suddenly still after his long Russian sojourn, and where the record takes its name.

Whether he’s talking about modern American colonialism as a traveling ESL teacher through an the lens of sucking up the last limited natural resources from a dying planet on “Resource Sucker”, feeling himself atrophy on “Visons of my Father,” or fantasizing about finding a better life in the Pyrenees mountains on “How We Move”, the feeling of returning to a familiar place after a long and affecting journey looms large over Girard Freeloader.

The record was chiefly recorded by José Díaz Rohena at The Unknown, Phil Elverum’s studio in Anacortes, Washington and completed in Philadelphia and Birthday’s new home of New York. The music communicates a growth from the last album as well, a more cinematic and extended scope, with more room for contemplation than the previous record’s two minute punk-influenced blasts. Girard Freeloader feels like D’Angelo-influenced digital soul with the synthesizer drive of The Silver Apples and the groovy poly-rhythms of Tuareg guitarists, all culled from Birthday’s mind and the childhood mandolin on which he writes songs with a signature unorthodox finger-driven playing style.

While Birthday was recording, he took a break to visit Bowman’s Bay, a secluded beach on the outskirts of Anacortes. There he found inspiration for the lyrics for “Make The Rules”, the closing track to the album: “I can almost taste it, feet behind in the nectar line. Is it the only thing that binds? String of eternity? And isn’t it amazing, the breadth of the sea, the lines in the leaves? Just over the bay I can see it.” Girard Freeloader is an album about contemplation and striving for self-betterment in the terrifying world in which we live. Maybe, if we all connect deeper with the places we hold dear, we can attain it. As Birthday expresses, “I’ve come a long way, but it’s everything that I know.”

credits

released January 20, 2017

Norwegian Arms is Keith Birthday is Brendan M
All songs by Norwegian Arms

Brendan M - Mandolin, Vocals, Additional Keys, Programming, Additional Percussion, Additional Drums, Bass Guitar
Andy Molholt - Keyboards, Wizardry, Whale Song, Evergreen Friendship, Additional Vocals on East Hollywood
Eric Slick - Drums, Palpable Groove, Hand Claps, Percussion
Matt Scarano - Drums on East Hollywood
John Thayer - Additional Percussion on How We Move
Michael Trillions - Additional Programming, Vibe Guru
Nicholas Wilbur - Reamping drums in an empty church from across the country (thanks!)

Produced by Norwegian Arms and José Díaz Rohena
Engineered by José Díaz Rohena
Additional Engineering by Zach Goldstein, John Thayer, Judah Dadone, Brendan M
Mixed by José Díaz Rohena except track 5 mixed by Brendan M

Tracked to tape at the Unknown, Anacortes Washington, Sept 2014
Additional Tracking at 40 Frost and 62 Saint Nicholas in Brooklyn, New York 2015

Additional Tracking at Kawari Sound Studios in Wyncote, Pennsylvania 2015

license

all rights reserved

tags

If you like Norwegian Arms, you may also like: