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Jul 18, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird released a new album, the amusingly titled My Finest Work Yet, back in March via Loma Vista. Now comes news that he’s been cast in the new season of FX’s crime anthology show Fargo. Bird has also shared a bonkers video for the album’s “Olympian” and released the We Are Olympians EP featuring two new versions of the song, one entitled “The Gotholympians” that features guest vocals from Madison Cunningham and is pretty much a brand new song, and an acoustic version of the song. Check out the Matthew Daniel Siskin-directed video and EP below.

Bird will be playing Thurman Smutney in the new season of Fargo, a role that was written specifically for him. Season 4’s impressive cast will also include Chris Rock, Jack Huston, Jason Schwartzman, and Ben Whishaw. The season takes place in Kansas City in 1950 and centers on two rival crime families, one African American and one Italian. The Noah Hawley-created show will return sometime in 2020 on FX.

Bird had this to say in a press release: “I’m flattered and excited to be asked to be in the cast of Fargo. I’m a fan of the show and its smart writing, inspired casting and great acting.”

Due to his filming commitments on Fargo, Bird is cancelling the end of his fall tour, his October 28 to November 2 dates.

Read our interview with Andrew Bird on My Finest Work Yet.

Previously Bird shared My Finest Work Yet‘s opening track, “Sisyphus” (which was one of our Songs of the Week), performed the song on the Chris Thile-hosted public radio show Live From Here, and shared a video for the song. Then he shared another song from the album, “Manifest,” via a Matthew Daniel Siskin-directed video that showed Bird and his band recording the album live to tape at Barefoot Studios in Los Angeles (the song was also one of our Songs of the Week). The album includes “Bloodless,” a politically themed song that Bird released in November and was our #1 Song of the Week.

In a previous press release Bird said of the album: “I think My Finest Work Yet is my finest work yet.”

The album tackles our current divisive political climate, as Bird explained in the previous press release: “I’m interested in the idea that our enemies are what make us whole-there’s an intimacy one shares with their opponent when locked in such a struggle. If we were to just walk away would our enemies miss us? How did we get to this point and how can we, through awareness of it, maybe pull ourselves out of this death spiral.”

Bird added: “There is a certain optimism to this record…it’s pretty up musically though it doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the lyrics.”

Paul Butler produced My Finest Work Yet, which was recorded at Barefoot Recordings in Los Angeles, CA. Bird’s last album, Are You Serious, was released in 2016 via Loma Vista.

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