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The Morning Birds

Two worlds collided, chaos ensued, new life was formed. When the dust settled there appeared, The Morning Birds. A hybrid of musical and spiritual understandings expressed through music, art, and moving images. We get what we give - are you ready?

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Hometown	Idyllwild, CA
Genres	Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Band Members	Samuel Markus; Jennifer Thorington;
Achievements	» more
Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:	Artist / Band Member The Band admin@themorningbirds.com 3107487560 Publicist Jenn admin@workingbrilliantly.com (951) 659-2452
# Years Experience Performing Live:	2
# Live Perfomances Past Six-months:	1
Opener Experience:	Trevor Hall
Similar Artists:	The Cranberries; Gotye; St. Vincent; Bob Dylan; Animal Collective
Performing Rights Society:	BMI
Discography:	Surrender To This EP—2011; The Quickening B-Sides LP—2011; The Quickening LP—2011; Inspiration Point LP—2009

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About the Artist

The Morning Birds cinematic tones make you feel as if you're floating on a cumulous cloud at daybreak being transported to another time and place like a willing Dorothy and Toto. Their music is a captivating and potent mix of the eclectic, the poetic,...

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Music

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Achievements

Video Finals Grand Prize Winner January 2014

Rock Videos Winner, January 2014

Rock Videos Winner, December 2013

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Press Coverage

All Gigs UK Album Review by All Gigs UK
The first thing that really strikes you about Samuel Markus is the great range of music he, and the Only Ones, explore on 'New Dawn'. The album is simply incredible. Fact! The first major shock is that Samuel, with brilliantly intuitive songs and a haunting and mature voice is only 21. Yes, this singer who explores the great mysteries of the human heart is only just legal in the States! When you read more about Samuel you start to realise that he has also been around a while, producing music with Rosewood Thieves, and he also writes and directs his own videos, oh and I did I mention he is only 21! Anyway, on to the music; Samuel is strikingly gifted, evident from the opening track 'Rosa' all the way through to 'Something Else' (the exit track). 'Rosa' evokes all the feeling of Cream, and 1967 psychedelial, kicking off with an infectious beat that you just can't sit still to! 'Another Day' takes the pace down a notch, but allows the listener to really absorb the range of Samuel's vocal ability. With a gravelly voice in the ilk of Dylan or Cash, Samuel just grabs you and haunts your sound system. 'New Dawn' presents us with a totally different style in the range of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This song is infectious, and by the second listen you are singing along enjoying the brilliant guitar riffs and catchy chorus. 'What's on Your Mind Babe?' wouldn't be out of place on the best (in my opinion) Dylan album 'Blood on the Tracks', Samuel may only be 21 but he has clearly experienced the best and worst of love and relationships. A simple guitar and easy beat, along with an intensely haunting vocal, ending in a crescendo of sound create a song full of blood, sweat and tears that most can relate to: 'I wish I didn't love you like I do'. Just brilliant! 'Suzanne' is a song of loss, 'I still don't know what love means...' and learning 'but I think I am beginning to understand'. A little like Ray Lamontagne, but possibly better, Markus knows how to make us listen! Following this, and kicking in with a stamping drum beat 'Miles Away' takes us on yet another new direction and a new journey. Track 7 'Jitterbug' is just that; a Jitterbug of a song, is there any musical style Markus can't take on, take apart and produce and a new and exciting way? The songs just keep getting better, 'Deeper Well' races through New Orleans funky blues, whilst 'East End of the Bay' is a sexy sultry song set to dazzling guitar riffs and 'One Door Land', not unlike the Dave Matthews Band, creates a 'wonderland' of sound attacking our aural systems! The final three songs on 'New Dawn' are the most reflective; 'The Only One' reminds me of Elliott Smith and the haunting lyrics he produced in his short yet creatively exuberant life. Samuel's voice is soothing and emotional embracing perhaps the best lyrics on 'New Dawn'. However, 'The Offering' is my favourite song on 'New Dawn', and the one on which Markus sounds the most like Zimmerman (this is not a criticism). Subtle guitars and Markus' voice are perfectly matched on a song that sounds like it has been around forever! The album ends in fine fettle; 'Something Else' is just Markus' voice (which sounds like he recorded it in a cupboard) is muffled but this only adds to the poignancy of this song, 'let's just admit how much this hurts', which rounds off a truly superb album. 'New Dawn' is a revelation, and Samuel Markus is going to be huge! Oh and did I mention he is only 21...

Toxic Pete Review by Toxic Pete
With his whispery voice and poetic ramblings, Californian Samuel Marks stands by a musical crossroads that could take him into nu-folk, nu-pop or nu-jazz. 'New Dawn', his debut album, finds Markus supported majestically by The Only Ones and doing his own thing with a confidence that rarely shines this brightly with a 'starter' work. Markus was clearly born to make sweet music; his story-telling through music is as reflective as it can be poignant; mature lyrics delivered with simplistic ease both tug at the heart strings and conjure up pictures that are as real to the listener as they obviously are to the writer. This is a no-fuss singer songwriter; superbly crafted songs are embellished with sympathetic reason and empathetic deftness as The Only Ones create accompanying backdrops that are as haunting as they are up-lifting. With clever mixing Markus allows his songs plenty of room to tell their tales - he doesn't crowd the words with over-blown arrangements, he shows a great understanding of dynamics and ensures the voice is the main instrument, an instrument that's expressive and sensitive yet all-powerful! 'New Dawn' by Samuel Markus pulls together folk, country, rock and jazz in a way that not many have managed; perhaps Tom Waits does similar things - Markus is certainly more gentle but just as persuasive in his approach. 'New Dawn' is a colourful musical tapestry; a collection of stories that slowly unravel to become one stunning collective of acousto-electric pictures-in-sound - a fine aural mural designed and executed with precision and understanding - a gift of beautiful sound to sit back with, relax and enjoy. With 'New Dawn', Samuel Markus And The Only Ones have assembled a wonderfully rich album of classy and meaningful songs. A great debut work, a fantastic introduction to a singer songwriter that's surely gonna be a big name on the 'scene', not just at 'home' but globally! 'New Dawn' is a real beaut! Tough one to follow methinks but, I've a feeling that Samuel Markus has all bases covered and will continue in this rich vein of musical creativity and keep on coming up with the goods.

Fingertips Review by Figertips
A full-bodied helping of quasi-psychedelic neo-folk rock, or some such thing, "Rosa" treads an alluring line between the contemporary and the classic, mixing a Derek & the Dominoes-like guitar-band drive with crispier beats and 21st-century production effects. Holding it all together--because I have to admit, that description doesn't sound all that alluring as I read it back to myself!--is 22-year-old Samuel Markus, whose voice contains something of Grant Lee Phillips' deep melodrama, but with a lighter touch and self-effacing tone. The song is pretty much built around a cascade of two-syllable almost-rhymes that repeat at the end of each lyrical line; Marcus wins the day with his earnest yet quizzical delivery, all but reveling in the mismatches that tumble out (e.g. "Casanova" and "composer" and "for ya") in service of his ramshackle, bittersweet-sounding story. Markus co-founded the N.Y.C.-based band the Rosewood Thieves (featured on Fingertips in Aug. '06) before splitting to do his own thing out in California. "Rosa" can be found on New Dawn, a CD recorded with an ensemble he calls the Only Ones (no relation to the British new wave band of the same name, which has apparently been playing together again recently). New Dawn was released at the end of September by Yatra Media.

Samuel Markus : Music For a New Dawn by Lucid Forge Canada
Markus has been creating a stir with the release of his debut album, New Dawn, a collection of twelve songs that document heartbreak, hope, and hymns for humanity. The album is shot-through with smart, insightful lyrics of a young man observing his world through the lens of burgeoning adulthood. If it sounds like a tall order for a 22-year-old, Markus shows no sign of wear, handling the mature subject matter with comfortable honesty. He doesn’t feel any sense of nervousness in exposing his vulnerabilities, either. When asked about whether he’s ever fearful toward the reception his songs may get from a new audience, the answer is a resounding no. “The most important lesson I’ve learned is to be okay with it,” he says, with a small, self-deprecating laugh, “to be okay with the show and how the songs are sounding, ‘cause I’m usually my own worst critic. I’m not worried about feedback from others, so much as myself.” Hailing from Montreal, Markus attended Idyllwild, the arts-focused high school in California. Though originally pursing studies in filmmaking, his first inklings toward music came when he was exposed to his roommate’s sonic noodlings. “Music has always been a huge part of my films,” he explains in soft, measured tones, “I would write music all the time, to dictate where narrative went. I was always using it, but not playing it, though I knew to some extent what I wanted to do. My roomie in my last year of high school was playing and performing, and I was helping him write lyrics. It was then I decided I wanted to write my own songs.” Attending college in New York City, Markus joined The Rosewood Thieves, a pseudo-psychedelic, folk-rock band whose work was used on the television programs Entourage and Grey’s Anatomy. He dropped out of college in his second year, realizing he wanted to pursue music full-time; around the same time, The Rosewood Thieves got signed to a record deal. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The band rented a run-down farmhouse in upstate New York, where they spent the next year, writing, composing, and behaving the way young twenty-somethings do with such creative license. Egos were a big part of that, though, and Markus found his voice was being drowned out amidst the chaos. “I wasn’t really writing or anything,” he says haltingly, “it wasn’t easy for me. It was an intense experience.” Letting out a sigh, his dark eyes ringed with exhaustion, it’s clearly a time and place he isn’t fond of recollecting. “It wasn’t my record deal,” he adds, “I just went along with it, thinking, “This is my chance to get my music out there,” but putting myself in a situation where all my creative abilities were going to somebody else… by the end of it, I was so broken down. I knew that was it.” From there, Markus returned to his parents’ home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and started writing songs –for and by him alone. He admits it was “really the first time” he’d done that. “Writing before, in the band, it had a specific niche. We were trying to do very 60s-type stuff.” Writing on his own allowed him moments of pure emotional and spiritual honesty. “I thought, “F*** it, I’m just going to write what my heart says. So the first thing I put out is something where you hear that. It was emotional.” Having played the Los Angeles circuit of clubs regularly (including The Derby and House of Blues) really helped in “gaining my confidence to really do it and play it live” as a professional working musician, too. But a reality of being a musician these days, no matter how big or small, is using the internet; online exposure has proven to be a big help in creating the buzz that’s been building around Markus, but it’s an outlet he has mixed feelings about. “I’m kind of on the fence about it,” he admitted, “we wouldn’t have been able to book the tour without it, yes, but on the other side, I’m not fully convinced it’s the end-all, be-all of getting music out there. It’s good for maximum exposure, yeah, but seeing music live, on the internet, is not the same as live-live.” Filmmaking is something Markus is still interested in exploring too. He directed his first video, “Jitterbug,” a kinetic fusion of tour images and performance clips, set to the song’s infectious, hip-hop-meets-folk sound. And he’s planning on directing more –not just for himself, but for others, too. Film scoring is a logical extension of all this, and it’s something he wants to explore as well. So long as he doesn’t get put in a box, or have any label affixed to him, he’s happy; right now, it’s all about “not fitting into a niche.” Which may explain the range of sounds one hears on New Dawn; “The Offering” has definite traces of Ron Sexsmith, while the radio-friendly single “Rosa” has a bouncy, Beatles-esque beat with touches of The White Stripes. “Miles Away” and the album’s title track both evoke the melodic pop of early Lennon-McCartney. So how would Markus describe his sound? “Emotive and cinematic and … interesting.” He smiles. “That’s what I want to go for.”

Samuel Markus = Encore Status by Encore Status
One of Markus’ strengths is that he seems to concentrate on post production just as much as he focuses on the craft of song writing. The Talking Heads sounded just as assured on stage as they did on their albums. I have yet to see Markus on stage, but the construction of these songs is assured and mature; the fundamentals so strong, so I can imagine them played as effectively during happy hour, as they are played on this album. “Rosa” leads off the album New Dawn, and it is one hell of a track with classy crunching chords and a pleading, if manipulated voice. It perfectly expresses the desperation contained in the lyrics. Markus is also incredibly evocative with a prototypical ‘folky’ voice, one that can frequently lie about the singer’s worldliness. He channels Dylan, but it is clear that he can sing. I really enjoy the voice because it speaks in sun tones, and with each song I find myself imagining a different time of the day, or a different temperature of the light outside my window. Marry that voice with a great set of poison pen lyrics, and you have a first rate folk singer. If Markus has a weakness, it’s that he betrays a little too much of his influences. I don’t have to look at his myspace page to tell you that he digs Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan. “New Dawn” in particular borrows a little too much from Tom Waits’ lilting psycho-trubador vibe. Having said that, it is a great title track with an interesting play between his refined voice and the very raw backing vocals. “The Offering” is a top notch Dylanesque song that sounds straight off of “Blood on the Tracks,” and I’m kind of ambivalent about it because of the similarity. At the same time, the lyrics are well written (as they are throughout the album). At other times he gets a little too conventional. “Suzanne” in particular sounds a little too much like a top 40 hit, and it is a little disappointing to hear it after a string of dynamite tracks. “One Door Land” also falls into this category as it is a good track, but it does not match the fun of his other more manic tracks, and it is self consciously morose. The album contains a formidable number of tracks for a debut album (15), and that leads to a hodge podge sense of continuity. Markus relies on his heroes for several songs, and does so with aplomb, but it is when he writes his own songs and relies less on his influences that this album shines. Once we enter the Southwest kick of the album, tracks 7-10, we don’t look back, and it is a treat that keeps on treating. His grasp of roots music is particularly dazzling on a stomping track like “Miles Away” that kicks a substantial amount of ass. I feel like I’m in a Southwestern bar, on my last stop before Cowboy oblivion. This is a track that would impress T-Bone Burnett, and I highly recommend it to anyone, even those not predisposed to Tex-Mex. “Jitterbug” is another pleasant surprised, as the voice says Dylan, but the cocaine-tempo boogie dances fast, and escapes any of his influences. It is a track that he completely owns and it would be great for driving, for a party, or just for listening after you’ve had some coffee. The guitar solos are short and sweet (and man are they sweet) and on “Deeper Well,” the guitar work stands out with scary guitar slides that recall Eric Clapton’s “Layla” (the GOOD version). Above all, Markus joins a growing legion of professional grade artists that eschew the amateur textures of self conscious low-fi, and embrace virtuosity. The backing band, The Only Ones, deserves a lot of credit for this album’s success. They do not try to hide behind “conceptual” strong structuring or DIY textures; this sounds like an album made in a top studio. Markus should be very pleased with the results. I know I am. - Bork P.S. Samuel Markus is having a show in LA at the House of Blues on Dec 11th. Please show your support. More info here POSTED BY ENCORE STATUS AT 10:11 PM 0 COMMENTS

Tracer Review by Tracer
Samuel Markus’s debut New Dawn is a woodsy, honey-dripped stroll through folk country with excursions into rock and indie. Markus has a shadowy whisper and distant acoustic guitar that sound familiar and old like he is playing some song found written on tattered bark from a tree somewhere in the dark woods between Tom Petty and Neil Halstead’s houses. In the past few years, a band’s debut album has tended to veer away from what a typical first album used to be; it used to be that a band would form, write songs, play them, get a record deal and record said batch of ditties. Lately, though, with home recording on the rise and the exposure given by MySpace, bands have bypassed this organic process and the ensuing first album is often a blitzkrieg of styles and sounds recorded at different times, in different bedrooms which are then pasted, crammed and collaged into a Frankenstein passed off as a first album. This machine gun technique can yield interesting results and it is one way to achieve that hit single (I’m talking to you Black Kids) but it more often than not results in inconsistent albums that have an overall sophomoric sound (still talking to you Black Kids). Samuel Markus bucks this trend and achieves a proper debut. With the songwriting, production and the musicians, calling themselves the “Only Ones,” there is nothing too flashy or trendy; the effect is current and timeless or something in between. The album begins with the line “… a song comes to my lips…” (from “New Dawn”) in a simple, conversational way that could have been used by any troubadour at any time. It reminds me a little of Leonard Cohen’s opening to "New Skin For The Old Ceremony" which is “You were the promise at dawn…” not just because both songs evoke dawn but in the way that they are so unassuming, use sporadic female backing vocals and are ultimately stripped-down. Through the course of listening to New Dawn, particularly through Markus’s voice (a Bob via Jacob Dylan approximation with heaping servings of Conner Oberst’s whining garrulousness as well as Nick Drake’s imagery) you can almost see the rhyming dictionary clenched in his hand. There are a lot of mellow post-folk singers that Markus invokes but somehow, through the tinny telephone effects and swinging melodies, M. Ward feels like the closest ally. However, there is a joking, sinister, ultra-clever quality to Ward that is absent in Markus. He, instead, has a less complex, playfully nascent tinge that is more readily accessible but also conjures comparisons to Jack Johnson; it often sounds too affected, which makes it grow a little thin with multiple listens. Jeff Hassay

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