The OaKs

Photo Credit: Steven Taylor

So I was going through the BTA email account, trying to make my way through:

MAKE YOUR PENIS LARGER! YES YOU, BRIDGINGTHEATLANTIC,
MAKE IT BIGGER!!

Hypothetically speaking, if BTA did have a penis, I'm sure that it would not need enhancement. I'm not trying to brag, but it's true. And now you might be asking, "Yo bridgingtheatlantic, what the fuck does spam and penis' have to do with The OaKs?". Well, not a thing...but the email after that was from Frantic, a promotion company based out of New York. Turns out they're pushing a band called the OaKs hailing from the Orlando, Florida. The story goes that the lead singer lived in Afghanistan post 9/11. Apparently he sold everything he had, a-la Into the Wild, and joined a humanitarian mission.

From the Press Release:

Costello [Ryan Costello, Vocals] lived there for two years, working in the Central Afghan Mountains with returned refugees, teaching them creative agricultural techniques and becoming fluent in their native language, Farsi. Late at night, while the dust storms blocked out the stars and rattled the windows, he would sit and work out impressions of what he had seen and heard that day on his acoustic guitar. Costello also documented his time in Afghanistan with a series of moving portraits which can be viewed at ryancostello.com.

When he was there he met a man named Masood. The two developed a close relationship and Ryan was there to bear witness to Masood's father's death.

From the Press Release:

Three years later, as Costello sat around in his living room in Florida one summer strumming on his classical guitar, he began working on a song that would weave in the story of Masood with another Masood who was killed in late 2001, Ahmad Shaw Masood. An Afghan mythic hero who rose up mighty armies to fight first the Russians and then later the Taliban, Masood from an early age carried himself as a warrior and a walking message to his people never to let themselves be ruled from without. Called “The Lion of Panshir”, Masood gave hope to his people in a hopeless time. As a composite of one personal friendship and one mythic story, Masood came to be one of the centerpieces of The OaKs’ new album Songs For Waiting.

Their sophomore release, Songs for Waiting, will be available on March 4th but you can stream the whole album from here.

[MP3]: Masood - The OaKs

Cheers,
MF Blaz