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What’s worse: No head, or that fake hair? Bill Baird delights in the absurd wordplay of “Hairpiece Horseman.”
AMM Feb 13 2026
Heavy Meddo single release show tonight at 13th Floor, with Commercial Breaks and Cast of Thousands.
Bill Baird has always had a magnificent connection to the absurd – any music, art, imagery, story…imagined ice cream flavor. There’s a play with language guiding each project. Baird runs with an idea and takes it to the outer limits and beyond. This time, it comes at a gallop with the new single “Hairpiece Horseman” created with Baird’s “postrock/postpunk/post-using-the-word-post” gang Heavy Meddo. And it comes with a most delightful collaboration with Britt Daniel (Spoon).
“I saw Britt when I was a teenager at the Electric Lounge (RIP) performing under the moniker Drake Tungsten,” Baird recalls. “Years later, he became a big supporter of Sound Team. When I moved back to Texas at the end of the pandemic, we reconnected. Last year, we played a show where we covered that Cure LP Seventeen Seconds. It felt really great, so I shared a new song I wrote with him, and he came up with his parts.”
The single precedes the June 14 Spaceflight Records release of Heavy Meddo’s LP Spiritual Stripmall, recorded with producer Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Cat Power, Riverboat Gamblers), including guest appearances by Daniel and folk artist Amy Annelle, and of course, varying levels of absurdist lyrical wit abound. It’s the Baird way.
“The whole project,” Baird says, “from the out-of-control shows to the absurd wordplay of the songs to the even more absurd wordplay of the band name itself (Meddo is the Prussian word for “honey”), to incorporating noise and psych-rock elements and triple entendre lyrics, is us mixing a cocktail whose fizziness explodes the martini glass in your hand as you’re about to take a sip.” Brief pause. “But I’m not really a big martini guy anyway.”
Martinis may, or may not be, an option at Heavy Meddo’s single release show tonight at The 13th Floor. Commercial Breaks and Cast of Thousands make this an insanely cool line-up. Doors at 8 p.m. The AMM received word that Heavy Meddo will be joined by special guests. Maybe playing with the band. Maybe just hanging out. Maybe dancing on the bar, but that’s not recommended. Thank you for reading.
