Almanac (MMX), Year of Beasts, is a collection of 12 singles released over the course of 2010, monthly, by Through the Sparks. It\'s a kind of transitional record to usher in the revitalized Through the Sparks. The "almanac" is arranged chronologically, sequenced from January through December, as the songs were released. While all the songs are fully-realized, it definitely gains size and momentum toward the end, as 12 songs start to serve a greater whole. Could\'ve probably cut a few more tracks and edited out the ones that didn\'t fit. Could\'ve put in some post-production segue tracks to give it some recurring themes. Could\'ve re-sequenced it so that all the songs that are in 6/8 time don\'t all go together. But, that\'s making an album. That has restrictions. There is one of those in the works as well.

So, it jumps around. The songs try on different suits. No holds were barred. Yeah, there is a country ballad about a hobo hangout that hosts a Moog noise-scape. There is feigned Crowleanism tucked into a bossa nova about lawn care. There is a metaphorical contemplation on love, that runs from Cairo to a Goofy Golf Course in Panama City. Shaven primates. Fallopian tubes. It was a lot of fun to do.

After finishing its last full-length, Worm Moon Waning, the Alabama band saw two line-up changes.
Drummer Thomas Mimikakis left for the West Coast, with Shawn Avery moving over to the kit. Avery had long-been a "sixth member" of the band, playing keys, guitar, percussion. Though, Mimikakis appears on a couple tracks here that had been started in the past.

Birmingham\'s Grey Watson moved in on guitar after that position had seen two other occupations. It\'s hard being the main guitar player in a band full of guitar players. Though a half-lifetime younger than some of the band, Watson actually attended the same shitty high school as most of the founding members; he was a perfect fit and brought with him a new excitement about the guitar. The electric guitar... It\'s no longer rare to see the the two-keyboard, one-guitar Through the Sparks mutate into a three-guitar cooperative on stage, when performing some of the songs included here.

In addition to the new line-up and emeritus members, guest musicians and singers include: Through the Sparks\' resident horn arranger and trombone player Chad Fisher, saxophonist Gary Wheat, trumpeter Omari Thomas, singers Preston Lovinggood, Kate Taylor, Duquette Johnston... and more.

Although each month may have seemed a "beast," with the band delivering a song each time while making another "proper" record, the band succeeds here in delivering a set of songs that, while they may not make an "album," they do celebrate the continuation of a group of musicians constantly striving to pin down what is sonically theirs. While all of these songs might not go together, they most certainly aren\'t going to fit on a release by anybody other than Through the Sparks. Almanac is a nice keyhole view of how all of this comes about and how the group endures and creates.

Release Date: June 21, 2011

Through the Sparks brand of \'basement-baroque, mid-fi\' psychedelia is one based in American roots music. Pitchfork called \'Lazarus Beach,\' the band\'s third release, a \'sophisticated sprawl of sound and songs, with elements of power pop, 70s singer/songwriter, prog, indie guitar rock, and even some smooth southern soul.\' The album, which the band recorded in its basement studio, peaked at Barnes & Noble\'s highest-selling online \'rock\' record for a few days, due to critical praise. In 2010, Through the Sparks follows up with its latest LP, Worm Moon Waning.

Having learned their lesson from a couple of ill forays into \'proper\' studios, the band returned to the basement to cut Worm Moon Waning. Engineer Lynn Bridges manned the controls and the band recorded in the same room, at the same time. The result is a record with a stronger presence-one that, while not at all stripped down-is focused and dynamic, while at times reckless, but always engaging. It comes and goes in just around 38 minutes. 76 if you play it twice.

Through the Sparks’ release, “Lazarus Beach” was their first official full-length recording for Skybucket Records. The collection includes the cream of a twenty-plus song crop, recorded at the band’s Alamalibu Studios in the first half of 2006. While hosting several Birmingham guest musicians and utilizing the band’s multi-instrumental talents, it keeps Through the Sparks’ guitar-and piano-rock format at the forefront.

While there are still the noise and synth-laden marshes, horn and big-harmony choruses and crescendos loom over beds of ukulele, honky-tonk piano, funeral home organ and pedal steel. Of course, there’s still a copious amount of gleaming guitars and a few signature triplet beats.

"Audio Iotas: Scraps for the Humar Ear" was a limited edition double EP/LP by Through the Sparks.  The songs on this collection were recorded sporadically of a number of years, some as part of pre-production for the "Coin Toss EP." Some bits were recorded live alone - and left alone - while others were recorded, abandoned, and picked up at a much later date.  Some were finished in an afternoon in Irondale, or in a few minutes in a garage, and most recently - over a weekend in a paint store. All were recorded at different stages of technological developments of the ever-transient Alamalibu Studios.

This "album" was mixed with consideration for the headphone crowd, complete with it\'s own built-in soundtrack.  For the full headphone experience, give you pan knob a tweak or two.

Folk-ish rock with an affinity for rickety, state-of-the-art Cold War era instrumentation. Channeling ELO, T-Rex, The Flaming Lips, and Neil Young.