Slaughter Beach, Dog started as a side project for Jake Ewald, one of Modern Baseball's two singer/songwriters. The band was born out of a case of writer's block, Jake used the first LP to experiment with writing from the point of view of fictional characters in the fictional town of Slaughter Beach to break off from the ultra-personal technique he'd developed in his main project. After Modern Baseball announced their hiatus last year, Slaughter Beach, Dog became Jake's main vehicle, giving him a chance to go all in on developing as a songwriter. Now free of the restrictions of being in a band with certain expectations already attributed to it, Birdie is Jake's introduction to his next chapter. Combining writing styles and flowing free between truth and fiction, the album takes Jake's signature mouth-full writing style, adds in some new influences from bands like Wilco, The Weakerthans, Jets To Brazil and Pedro The Lion, and comes out with something completely fresh.