Good Flying Birds are the kind of band that feels like they’ve already been in your life forever, even as they’re just breaking through. After building a grassroots buzz with their debut cassette run via St. Louis DIY label Rotten Apple—selling 300 tapes in under a month—the group now readies their first wide release with Talulah’s Tape, out October 17 on Carpark Records and Smoking Room.
The record has already been praised by Paste (Best of What’s Next), Bandcamp, Stereogum, and Consequence, the latter calling lead single “Fall Away” “a sublime slice of guitar-forward indie that moves at a runaway pace.” That track burns fast, all raw nerve and momentum, while today’s new single “I Care For You” shows a softer shimmer. Written in what frontman Kellen Baker calls a “very-Beat Happening style,” the song balances jangly innocence with layers of “guitarmonies stuffed to the brim.” It’s about that rare moment of fresh love—fleeting, ecstatic, untainted. The result is both scrappy and transcendent, proof that Good Flying Birds can channel punk immediacy and indie-pop bliss in equal measure.
What makes Talulah’s Tape so striking is its sense of place. Born from the fertile energy of St. Louis’ DIY scene, the record doesn’t polish away its edges—it celebrates them. That’s why they’ve fit so seamlessly alongside kindred spirits like Sharp Pins, Wishy, Pardoner, Horsegirl, and Golomb. Their sound is familiar yet vital, a reminder that guitar-driven indie isn’t dead, it’s just thriving underground until the right moment.
And that moment feels like now.