What you hear are Two Dark Birds kicking off spring with their fifth full-length album, Dreamers of the Golden Dream (Vol.1). The band from the Catskill Mountains, New York—songwriter Steve Koester (vocals, guitars, keys) and Jason Mills (drums, percussion), joined by Josh Roy Brown (lap steel, guitar, banjo, mandolin), Tyler Wood (piano, keyboards), Mark Lerner (bass, harmony vocals), and Iris Clementine (harmony vocals)—drop nine new tracks that float somewhere between laidback indie pop and warm psychedelic folk. By the time the almost 10-minute closer, aptly titled The Song To End It All, spirals into a heartland fever dream, you realize: this is big-feeling, open-hearted music that meets the current chaos head-on, and sings anyway. Spring may have arrived, but it’s a gloomy one—with a fitting soundtrack: “There’s a girl right there with the feathered hair // And bombs are exploding in the air.”
Dreamers of the Golden Dream (Vol.1)—produced by Todd Adelman and Steve Koester—is out on vinyl LP through Vfib Recordings. Artwork by Herr K. Volume 2 will be released in Summer 2026.