Air Miami Share Official Video for ‘Seabird’ Today

Today, Air Miami release an official video for ‘Seabird’ from their 1995 album Me. Me. Me. in the lead up to the album’s reissue on 28 July. Almost three decades after its release, the deluxe edition celebrates the first and only studio album from Air Miami, the duo of Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross.

Following dynamic tracks ‘I Hate Milk’ and ‘World Cup Fever’, ‘Seabird’ is a drastic shift on the album. If the guitars of ‘I Hate Milk’ were stabbing points, the guitars of ‘Seabird’ are flannel sheets and lingering hugs. Weighted and deliberate, Cross’s performance is so vulnerable, while the song builds a bed of empathy around her. The song is so expansive, it describes an individual position and a specific landscape, but opens to a universal human yearning. “I think ‘Seabird’ is probably the best song on there,” asserts Robinson. The official video edited by Jono Canning is the perfect counterpart, the video compiling together footage the band shot when making the record.

Watch the ‘Seabird’ video HERE or via the player below.

The track also found new life recently when covered by current 4AD artist Maria Somerville, her first release for the label and part of the label’s 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues – listen HERE.

Robinson and Cross formed Air Miami in D.C. shortly after the demise of their previous indie rock project Unrest in 1995. Together with drummer Gabriel Stout and producer Guy Fixsen (The Breeders, My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab) the band headed to their namesake land of Miami to record Me. Me. Me. at the famed Criteria Studios; a place where James Brown, Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC and countless more have recorded classic works. The album was then mixed at a studio in London where labelmates Lush were recording their 1996 LP Lovelife at the same time.

Nearly thirty years on, this deluxe reissue sees the 1995 album expanded to include all sixteen tracks from the album sessions, three of which are new to the tracklist: ‘Warm Miami May’ (not on original LP), ‘Pucker’ (previously unreleased), and the full version of ‘See-Through Plastic’ (edited version only previously seen on the Fuck You, Tiger EP). Remastered from the original analogue tapes by Pete Weiss (whose recent remastering work includes Luna, Type O Negative, Morphine and Belly), Me. Me. Me. (Deluxe Edition) sees the album now spread over two LPs and cut at 45rpm. Pressed on Floridian-inspired aqua and orange vinyl its stunning artwork is housed in a gatefold sleeve with Hideaki Kodama’s ‘Girl B 1988’ painting still adorning the cover. A one-time pressing, it will be available everywhere from July 28th, with a high-res digital version also coming out the same day. Pre-order here.

Earlier this year, Robinson and Cross were in conversation with Galaxie 500’s Dean Wareham as part of 4AD’s new podcast 4AD Forages. Listen in full here.

ABOUT AIR MIAMI
After D.C.’s Unrest split in 1994, Bridget Cross and Mark Robinson formed Air Miami. First as a duo, then as a short-lived quartet (with Mike Fellow on drums and Lauren Feldsher on bass) before settling as a trio with Bridget and Mark being joined by drummer Gabriel Stout.

Having self-released two cassettes and then a 7” on Mark’s Teen Beat label in 1994, Air Miami’s first dalliance with 4AD came when their track, ‘Pucker,’ was included on the label compilation All Virgos Are Mad. The combatively titled Fuck You, Tiger EP was released shortly after, setting the scene for their debut studio album Me. Me. Me., an eclectic record that veered closer to pop and new wave than Unrest ever did, it both delighted and confounded when released in 1995.

Often cited as one of 4AD’s finest of the era, the record has since only grown in cult status, and ultimately proved to be their last. An EP of World Cup Fever Remixes came out in 1998 (to coincide with the World Cup in France that year) but the band had already broken up by then.