If you've noticed we've been blogging a lot about Pickathon lately, you're right! (There is a prize for you taped to the back of your monitor; go find it.) The surge in Pickathon-related posts is because the weekend-long music fest is right around the corner—if by corner you mean Thursday—as it kicks off Friday afternoon with more great bands than we have fingers to write about. (Well, except for our freelancer Squigglehand Joe, who possesses an amazing 72 fingers. We only use him when we have to, though; he's a pretty bad typist.)

This particular Pickathon post is about the Mynabirds! Lead Mynabird (you could call her Mama Myna—actually, don't) Laura Burhenn recently came back to Oregon to record the Mynabirds' second album with producer extraordinaire Richard Swift (fuck a filbert, Swift is Oregon's greatest natural resource) at his National Freedom studio in Cottage Grove. This is the scene of the crime where they recorded the first great Mynabirds album. Album number two, Generals, is darker and more somber, retreating from the vintage, rose-tinted past of the first record to head into the shadowy, bluesy unknown. The clip for the album track "Disarm" is above; you can go over to IFC to see the video for the title track as well.

The Mynabirds play at noon on Saturday at the Fir Meadows Stage, and then at 10 pm on Sunday night on the Starlight Stage.