Technology Is a Dead Bird (album)

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## ***Technology Is a Dead Bird***Studio album by Mars Argo

* Original
* iTunes
* Instrumental
* Inst. Alt.

### **Producer**

Titanic Sinclair · Jesse Meyer · Justin McGrath

***Technology Is a Dead Bird*** is the debut studio album by Mars Argo. It was released to Bandcamp on November 6th, 2009, as well as to iTunes on November 22nd, 2009.

## Background

In 2007, Brittany Sheets and Corey Mixter met on Myspace and eventually began dating, and started to collaborate on video content for YouTube and Vimeo, with Mixter adopting the pseudonym Titanic Sinclair and Sheets later becoming Mars Argo, which also became the name of their duo / band as a whole.

The duo wiped all of their early content off of the Internet once YouTube instated their guidelines against copyright infringement, producing new videos as grocerybagdottv with original background music. They decided to become an official band after positive reception to their music by online commenters.

## Release and promotion

Argo and Sinclair began recording a series of piano concept demos in August 2008, some of which later developed into full length songs such as "Welcome to the Future" and "Electric Car".

The album's title was first announced in the video "Paper Airplane", a Grocerybag video revealing an early instrumental for a later scrapped song from the record, "You Have a Lot of Work to Do", on March 12th, 2009. Demos and instrumental versions of other songs recorded for the album were previewed in similar uploads from that year.

A music video for "Tired Today" was debuted on March 18th, 2009, using an alternate version of the song with a guitar-only ending. Similar music videos were released for "The Singularity Is Near" and "Monsters Under My Bed" on July 10th and September 9th of that year respectively, intended as trailers to promote the album.

The album was later removed from sale on iTunes, making it a Bandcamp-exclusive release. However, other releases uploaded to iTunes remain intact. Footage of the cover photoshoot was used in a short teaser video, "Marsargo Dot Bandcamp Dot Com", posted on the initial Bandcamp album release date. An instrumental-only edition of the album was released on December 11th, promoted with the video "Our Songs in Your Videos" and, as referenced, intended to be played in the background of fellow YouTubers' uploads under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license.

A music video for the song "Mrs. Stadler" was filmed about one year later, featuring cinematography by Matthew Franklin and Tony Katai, and was released on November 11th, 2010.

#### Internet Sessions

*Main article: Internet Sessions*
Argo and Sinclair began releasing acoustic performance videos of songs shortly before the album release, beginning with "Machine" on October 14th, 2009, and continued with "Suicide Birds" on December 17th, 2009. These two recordings were later included and released in an audio-only format as the *Internet Sessions* EP on August 18th, 2010.

## Critical reception

Reviews of *Technology Is a Dead Bird* were mixed. Charlie O'Shea of Indie Music Finds wrote an article about the album on the day of its release, praising its "subtly haunting" music style. Chris Coplan of Consequence of Sound reviewed the album one month after it came out, giving it a C- score and somewhat admiring the dynamic between the duo on "Mrs. Stadler" and the title track, but criticizing "Machine" and "Tired Today".

## Track listing

#### Outtakes

* "Audio"
* "Audio 4"
* "Audio 5"
* "Electric Car"
* "Moot"
* "Spider in My Bathtub"
* "Weightless Egos"
* "Welcome to the Future"
* "You Have a Lot of Work to Do"

## Personnel

**Credits**

* Mars Argo - vocals
* Titanic Sinclair - vocals; production
* Jesse Meyer - additional production (track 2)
* Justin McGrath - additional production (track 8)

## Gallery

Promotional artworkTextless promotional altPromotional GIF
## Trivia

* In 2023, Sinclair revealed he would like to remaster the album. However, he no longer has access to its stems.

## References

1. ↑ "Technology is a Dead Bird by Mars Argo". *Bandcamp*. November 6, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
2. ↑ @marsargo (November 22, 2009). Mars Argo on Facebook. Retrieved May 19, 2018 – via Facebook.
3. ↑ "Technology Is a Dead Bird by Mars Argo". *iTunes*. November 6, 2009. Archived from the original on May 26, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
4. ↑ "Mars Argo are Done Being Cool - Watch Their New Video For "Runaway, Runaway"". *Noisey*. February 14, 2013. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
5. ↑ "GROCERYBAG.TV". *Grocerybag*. March 18, 2009. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved on May 18, 2018.
6. ↑ "The Singularity is Near". *YouTube*. July 10, 2009. Archived from the original on June 20, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
7. ↑ "Monsters Under My Bed". *YouTube*. September 9, 2009. Archived from the original on April 9, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
8. ↑ "Technology is a Dead Bird (Instrumental) | Mars Argo". *Bandcamp*. December 11, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
9. ↑ "Mars Argo - Mrs. Stadler (OFFICIAL VIDEO)". *YouTube*. November 11, 2010. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
10. ↑ "Internet Sessions | Mars Argo". *Bandcamp*. August 18, 2010. Archived from the original on October 17, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
11. ↑ O'Shea, Charlie (November 6, 2009). "Mars Argo – Technology is a Dead Bird". *Indie Music Finds*. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
12. ↑ Coplan, Chris (December 30, 2009). "Mars Argo – Technology is a Dead Bird". *Consequence of Sound*. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
13. ↑ Titanic Sinclair (September 8, 2023). "'This is Stadler' Titanic Talks Ep. 32". *YouTube*. Retrieved September 16, 2023.

## Navigation

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