Philadelphia winters are spitefully cold and longer than seems possible or even just. It's awfully hard to do anything at all. Yet right in the heart of those frozen doldrums Ben Dickey and Drew Mills got down to blowing on the embers of songs they had, individually and together, been incubating for some time. Aha. It caught: this prolific twosome favor each other so handsomely in tone, skill, presence and purpose that it was only natural to shake hands and make a band. And thus from ashes -oh the formidable Phoenix!- has risen Blood Feathers. Their fantastic fledgling album, curse and praise, was recorded during nine days of hibernation in a little nest of a studio tucked in the corner of an arctic warehouse in Fishtown. Hauled along by the rhythmic engine of Quentin and Mickey of Mazarin (who, by the by, produced and engineered), Feather Dickey and Feather Mills hatched a work of great balance and grace. The much anticipated curse and praise is out now on Box Theory Records. This perennial record heralds the emergence of a band, with teeth sharp from cutting, who will strike fear in the hearts of cowards and courage in the rest of us. Their innate trust in the simple power of a song will land them on the rock roost for a good long while. Blood Feathers preen with passion alone. Pay attention...