State Bird

“I Saw the Light” by State Bird, from Mostly Ghostly

When planning your next vacation, take a good, hard look at Dover, Ohio. Maybe it doesn't have Hawaii's white-sand beaches or Colorado's snowy mountains, but there must be something special about this town for it to produce a group as talented and diverse in its influences as State Bird. The band's latest album, Mostly Ghostly (released on Kansas City label the Record Machine), is a scrap ripped from the bathrobe of quirk-rock, complete with warbly vocals, well-placed horn fills and enough hand-clapping to make Clap Your Hands Say Yeah phone its trademark attorneys. But what makes State Bird unique are the lively snippets of instrumentation and vocals that weave in and out of every track, transporting the listener to a '60s love-in, a Southern tent revival or a backwoods carnival — in some cases, all in the same song. It's a lot to take in all at once, but spending some time peeling back the layers is half the fun. In fact, skip Dover — you'll be way too busy listening to this album to travel anyway.