We’re all jumping for joy over here…What a fun reminder that Andrew’s new album, Break it Yourself, is around the corner.
NEW ANDREW BIRD!
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Andrew Bird at Conversre Hall (Boston)
I’m at Converse Hall in downtown Boston listening to Marissa Nadler and waiting to hear Andrew. I’m relaxed and I owe it all to those on stage and the masons who dawned their bare hands upon this building so many years ago. It makes sense that Andrew calls these gigs “Gezelligheid”, which is a Dutch term that very loosely stands for cozy in English. The Acoustics in the Converse Hall ping my senses as if they were a toy in the middle if two newborns. I’m happy. I feel refreshed. This is was music is all about.
The stage was full of blooming flower amplifiers, a usual element to the Andrew Bird decor, but in this case the entire front of the stage was lined with little mini-amplifiers backed up by towering amps. New music was a plenty tonight. It was almost as if Andrew scheduled these gigs not so much for the instrumental appeal but more to get these new tunes out in the open. No complaints here. But first up was an oldie to get him relaxed- why?!!!
After running through an old Kenyan song and admitting to its difficulty before diving in, it was on to a new song! Right now the song is called “Autonomy”. It’s about being young and finished with all the false comforts – declaring his autonomy. Per usual Bird humor, he throws in some discussion about throwing away the pacifier and claiming your freedom. Natural Disaster followed and was almost completely restructured for this gig.
Being a perfectionist, Andrew corrected himself on a number of occasions and had a number of false starts. As long as he keeps doing what he’s doing, he can stop and start all he wants in my book.
Effigy!!
Breeding Desperation is another new tune played this night. Video for this song is in the works and sounds hilarious. There will be a field full of flower speakers and Zach Galifianakis dressed up as a bee on roller skates as well. Sounds too good to be true.
More new stuff! Lazy Projector. About selective memory. Followed by a sick instrumental that pulsated the room.
Another new song – I and I – was half played at TED conference last January.
The Barn Tapes off of Noble Beast was fun to hear in this venue. Andrew confessed it is the most non-melodic tune of the night. This song was based on some actual “barn tapes” that he recorded one summer with a friend where the goal was to loop every key and bend them all.
New one about a hole in the ocean. Didn’t catch the name.
Section 8 City was played for some fans in the crowd.
The encore included Going Home by Charley Patton. I find it funny to hear Andrew sing lyrics that are of the standard affair. It almost seems unnatural for him to not throw in strange words that often have no meaning but are instead added to fit into the rhythm of the song.
- Check out the complete setlist
- View pictures taken by Jean-Paul DiSciscio on Flickr
- A ton of pics and videos can also be seen at Boston through my eyes blog
- Watch more live video at my YouTube page
Fat Possum has released Useless Creatures, an instrumental album that was at first a companion piece to Noble Beast. Andrew is going on to play three more shows around this “cozy” format in Chicago at the Fourth Presbyterian Church on the 15th, 16th and 17th of December (all shows sold out). Then he heads to Los Angeles in mid January for a couple shows at Largo (15th and 16th) and then to Santa Cruz to play the Rio Theatre (16th). He’ll be down in Mexico City on March 17th to play Teatro de la Ciudad.
Review of Andrew Bird @ BoA Pavilion 6/19/08
On this gloomy Friday, that turned into a partial sunny afternoon, we dragged our work week bodies to the Seaport Bar & Grill for some pregame beverages before walking over to the Andrew Bird / Calexico show at the BoA Pavilion with a clear understanding to catch all of the opener. Those unfamiliar with Calexico, get familiar. Originating from Tuscon, Arizona, they’ve been around the block. If you listen to WERS you’ve probably heard their latest single, “Two Silver Trees “, off of Carried to Dust. Over the years they’ve received sporadic recognition and exposure such as their collaboration with Iron & Wine for an EP, In the Reins, but are definitely due for more. One of their more famous tracks is a cover of the Love song, “Alone Again”, which closed out their set and forced us out of our seats to get the blood flowing before Andrew hit the stage. Turning around at the end of their set, I was happy to see a good portion of the venue filled. I’m sure they picked up a few new fans from this night.
Over all, the venue was a little more then half full for the show. A bit odd, considering Andrew Bird has been gracing the Boston area with his presence for over a decade (from Johnny D’s, to Middle East to Berklee to the Pavilion). But it was also refreshing to go up to get a beer and not have any line.
“Sweetbreads” opened the set, which is more commonly known as “Dark Matter” off of Armchair Apocrypha. Andrew was his usual talkative self and explained after this song that he was inspired by a cook book about sweetbreads that he once read while half asleep and thinking about eating thoughts. As he rambled he began to confuse himself and the crowd. Andrew likes to open his mouth and let his thoughts do all the talking so it’s usually disjointed. Sticking with the same album, they jumped into a lively rendition of “Fiery Crash”.
Reaching back a little father into his library, they played the slow and fidgety tune, “Opposite Day”, from …Mysterious Production of Eggs. The next set of songs would highlight his latest release, Noble Beast, starting with “Fitz and Dizzyspells”. The energy from this song was a sign of things to come for this show. “Natural Disaster” followed and relaxed the crowd back from the edge of our seats where we sat bobbing our heads to Fitz. “Mastersworm”, a song about radiolarians, tiny microorganisms that live at the bottom of the ocean. Andrew is a tried and true nature boy and it shows throughout his lyrics. Before moving on, he explained that the next couple of tunes are about anti-social tendencies. “Oh No”, the Noble Beast single and one of Bird’s greatest whistle-a-long songs to date, was first up. We tried to whistle with him but not every human being has as much saliva as Bird so this was short lived. “Effigy” was the second anti-social inspired song. The next song, “Anonanimal”, was inspired by the animals from the movie The Dark Crystal as Andrew explained. How can you not love this guy.
The first and only cover of the night was an old timey tune called “Trials, Troubled, Tribulations”. The next song, “Imitosis”, showcased the chops of Andrew’s drummer, Martin Dosh. I was hoping to get a “Simple X”, a song that blew me away at the Berklee show a couple years back and introduced me to Dosh’s abilities. “Cataracts” slowed things down but this was necessary for what was to come.
This was the last show for the joint Andrew and Calexico bill. Andrew has known the boys from Calexico for sometime and was very sad to see their paths divide. We all knew what this meant, it was time to use up the space on the giant stage; enter the six members of Calexico. “Skin is, my” kicked things off and as the guitars roared and horns soared towards the first chorus, the crowd slowly rose to their feet. For the remainder of the show most of us stood to pay homage to the amazing performance unraveling in front of us. The sound was huge and everyone was feeling it. Even folks who would rather sit joined in on the excitement. When they broke into “Synthian Empire”, I turned to my friend Josh in excitement. I had claimed this my favorite song of the year back in 2007 when Armchair Apocrypha came out and hearing it with Calexico on stage was a huge treat for these ears. One more with everyone, the sneaky but heartfelt song, “Tables and Chairs”, found on …Mysterious Production of Eggs. As they took their bows and left the stage, the crowd roared and banged on chairs giving them a clear sign that we would not be happy with just one more song.
Up until this point they had played songs from only the past three albums, besides the old timey cover tune. So it was a special moment when Bird came out all alone to pull off “Why?”, a song from his 2001 release, The Swimming Pool. As he rubs his head and moves about sporadically, this song shows off Andrew’s madness perfectly. From the pluck of the strings to the vilont stoke of his bow with horsehair loosely flying about, Andrew Bird is a true modern day virtuoso.
They went on to play two more songs in the first encore (“Headsoak” and “Fake Palindromes”). Then, feeling the excitement in the crowd, Andrew came back out for a 2nd encore and played “Don’t Be Scared” off of his 2003 album, Weather Systems.
It was quite a night and ranks up there with shows I’ve seen at the pavilion as well as shows I’ve seen period. We took a lot of pictures, below are just a handful. To see more, go to T Dog’s Flickr page.
Complete setlist:
- Sweetbreads/Dark Matter
- Fiery Crash
- Opposite Day
- Fitz and Dizzyspells
- Natural Disaster
- Mastersworm
- Oh No
- Effigy
- Anonanimal
- Trials, Troubles, Tribulations
- Imitosis
- Cataracts
- Skin is, My (w/ Calexico)
- Scythian Empire (w/ Calexico)
- Tables and Chairs (w/ Calexico)
1st Encore:
- Why?
- Headsoak
- Fake Palindromes
2nd Encore:
- Don’t Be Scared
Pictures from the show:
Andrew Bird @ BoA Pavilion this Friday in Boston
That crazy melody making whistler is gracing us with his presence this Friday at the BoA Pavilion. I’m excited cause it’s my first show at the pavilion (also known as Harbor Lights) this summer and it never officially feels like summer until I get down there. I’m hoping our weather will feel the same way and open up its heart to summer time weather once the birdman passes through our corner of the world. Seriously, this weather is getting to be a bit depressing.
If you’re new to Andrew Bird, I highly recommend starting with the album, Mysterious Production of Eggs. This is the album that first grabbed a hold of me and it was the song, “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left”, off of this album that first drew me to investigate the “mysterious” songstress. I even remember the blog it came from, lovely Fluxblog (Grab it from My Old Kentucky Blog).
The great thing about seeing Andrew live is the songs are often changed up from their studio arrangements. Andrew is truly a modern day prodigy and can never seem to stop thinking about different arrangements for all the melodies floating in his brain (Read his New York Times article on how he writes songs in their Measure for Measure blog).
On the albums, Andrew writes and I believe plays most if not all the instruments. However, instead of watching him create loops for half the show (it’s more like a quarter), he brings along some friends to jam out. Martin Dosh provides back up on percussion, loops and keys. Keep an eye out for “Simple X”, a Dosh song that made it on Andrew’s previous release, Armchair Apocrypha. The last show I saw they nailed it and the song highlights Dosh’s otherworldly percussion skills. Jeremy Ylvisaker supports on the guitar, bass, organ and shortwave. A recent addition is Mike Lewis, who plays with Jeremy Ylvsaker in Alpha Consumer.
Buy Noble Beast (released in January 2009)
Download & Listen: “Oh No” (from Noble Beast)
Official Andrew Bird website: www.andrewbird.net
Myspace page: www.myspace.com/andrewbird
Tour Dates:
Jun 15 – Cobb Energy PAC – Atlanta, GA
Jun 18 – Radio City Music Hall – New York, NY
Jun 19 – Bank of America Pavilion – Boston, MA
Jul 10 – Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Jul 11 – Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA
Jul 13 – Red Butte Garden – Salt Lake City, UT
Jul 14 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
Jul 16 – Britt Pavilion – Jacksonville, OR
Jul 17 – Marymoor Amphitheatre – Redmond, WA
Jul 18 – McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater – Troutdale, OR
Jul 19 – McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater – Troutdale, OR
Jul 26 – Squaw Velley Ski Resort – Olympic Valley, CA
Aug 7 – Lollapalooza – Grant Park – Chicago, IL
Aug 8 – Lollapalooza – Grant Park – Chicago, IL
Aug 9 – Lollapalooza – Grant Park - Chicago, IL
Oct 2 – Austin City Limits Festival – Austin, TX
Oct 3 – Austin City Limits Festival – Austin, TX
Oct 4 – Austin City Limits Festival – Austin, TX
Hip2besquare on BreakthruRadio…The Posts
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take part of breakthruradio.com’s “Anatomy of a Blogger” program. This program runs every Thursday on their online radio website.
The hour long program I put together was made up of songs I chose from their list of approved labels and answers to five questions.
It was put together quite well. My only issue was some of the songs I selected were presented in a live format versus the studio version. The quality of the live recording were not great, especially for the Apostle of Hustle song, “Cheap Like Sebastian”. They also decided to use the Fuck Buttons song that I had thrown on the list as a last resort. It’s not a great song for radio in my opinion. I basically added it to the list just in case the other songs weren’t cleared for playing on their station. Overall, I was happy with the way it turned out.
One other problem was the actual site. Many of my friends and family who went to listen had trouble viewing the website because of all the FLASH activity on the home page. Many computers were freezing up. Even fast computers such as the CTO at my company. Apparently this is a subject that’s come up before at the breakthruradio office. I hope they come up with a solution for their sake.
Those that did hear the program may not be aware but I wrote five posts for them as well. The posts were pretty buried in their news section so I’m going to share them with you here.
The Next SoCal Hyped Band – “Delta Spirit”
The L.A. and NYC music scenes are similar in that they create extremely hyped up bands very quickly and us bloggers have a tendency to speed that process up. However, from this east coasters opinion, those hyped from places like Greenpoint in Brooklyn usually live up to their hype (i.e. TV on the Radio). Unlike in SoCal where we get bands that have a tendency to implode upon further listen (i.e. We are Scientists or Cold War Kids).
So when a band like Delta Spirit leaves you feeling, “jeez, these guys are really good”, you immediately have to put those feelings into check. Are those beach guitar vibes just creating temporary feelings of bliss and actual exposure over time dulls the senses? Are those lyrics as creative as they sound or is that overpowering voice creating an illusion?
It’s been a few months since the Dr. Dog show here in Boston and the experience of Delta Spirit’s opening dominance. We strolled in after putting a few back in the upper part of Middle East Downstairs so our senses were ripe for picking. The energy coming from the stage immediately impacted our group. We got as close as we could to what was happening and couldn’t help but be swept up in the moment. Their final song brought Dr. Dog out on stage to join in on the action. My one friend turned to me and said, “it’s like an indie Last Waltz”. It was a special night for the two bands as it represented the final night they would be touring together. But usually this kind of jam session happens at the final moments of the headliner.
Looking back at the show and listening to their album, my verdict is that the lyrics are clever. The lead singer, Matt Vasquez, has a very powerful, and an exceptional voice. But the music itself leaves you with something to be desired. There’s a lot of clamoring about but in the end the melodies get lost among the powerful singing.
Don’t take my word for it. Watch their full live set, opening for Dr. Dog at The Parish on 9/13/2008 here: http://www.baeblemusic.com/Concerts/TheParish/DeltaSpirit.html.
Medeski, Martin & Wood – Rewriting the rules of record making
Dipping into my jam band grab bag, MMW (Medeski, Marting and Wood) bring us a new way of recording an album. Instead of writing music, recording it, introducing it to the masses through an official album release, then touring off of the album, they’ve decided to write some songs, introduce them by touring then immediately heading into the studio to record the songs and include the new variations that evolved to each song from the live show. They’re planning to release three albums in this fashion calling them The Radiolarian Series. Radiolarian is a single cell organism that has a very intricate exoskeleton (read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolarian).
The first single off of the first series is called “Free Go Lily”:
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It’s a funky jam. But the song that I keep going back to is “Muchas Gracias”. It starts out with a slow and dark piano line and rumbling drums. MMW loves using the mini-wind piano called a melodica and they use it to start out the melody. This slow groove continues for the first two and half minutes till it breaks apart and for roughly a minute the song climbs out from the depths into a faster, harder groove that makes your head rock back and forth. Then, the first major chord is hit, releasing us into the oncoming jam. We eventually die back to its original dark pace and are left prepared to rock out to the next tune, “Professor Nohair”.
Buy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GMP4H0?ie=UTF8&tag=hip2-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001GMP4H0
Andrew Bird – New album and jamming with Yo Yo Ma
Andrew Bird is by far one of our generation’s most talented musicians. Period. His craft to build a song around what can only be described as deeply disjointed lyrics, is one of a kind. Read more about his song writing process over at his New York Times article: http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/words-will-tell/. It all starts with a whistle.
His new album, “Noble Beasts”, is due out on Fat Possum on 1/20/09. You can listen to the opening track, “Oh No”, over at this website (http://www.andrewbird.net/news.htm). Per usual, he starts off with a whistle and discusses the life of a sociopath. If the first track is any sign of things to come, I think we’re in for yet another masterpiece from the birdman.
If anyone had any doubt about Andrew’s abilities, just check out the Chicago native jamming with the Grammy award winning Cellist, Yo Yo Ma, over at MTV Iggy: http://www.mtviggy.com/content/3552.
Stream entire album at NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98649962
Brighton MA – “Sunblinded”
Fans of The Walkmen will fall in love with Brighton, Ma, a four piece from Chicago. They represent the next generation of nostalgic indie pop. The lead man, Matt Kerstein, was a co-founder of Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, which was a band I first heard about during the 2005 CMJ festival. The hype around the band sounded as if they were well positioned to take off. They landed opening gigs for Spoon, Arcade Fire and The Walkmen. We’re not exactly sure what drove Matt to leave the band. Perhaps the band was stuck creatively. Either way, Matt and other SYGC members, Sam Koentopp (drums) and Devon Bryant (guitar,bass,vocals and production) have added Jim Tuerk (guitar, keys and arrangements) and are making waves with Brighton, MA.
“Sunblinded”, is in my opinion one of their best tracks off of their debut album, “Amateur Lovers”, which was released this past October on Loose Tooth Records. Based on their Daytrotter session, this song was recorded just after their tour with Elvis Perkins in the winter of 2007. The song was inspired by Elvis’s songwriting and helped drive the direction of the album.
Listen and download “Sunblinded” and others over at their Daytrotter session: http://daytrotter.com/article/1517/the-flawed-men-that-become
Watch them perform their songs live over at the Rolling Stone Tanqueray site: http://www.rollingstoneextras.com/tanqueray/.
All Smiles – Jim Fairchild of Grandaddy comes back for round two
Jim Faichild was the guitar player behind the California indie band, Grandaddy, which broke up back in 2007 after a ten-year career. Jason Lytle had always been the main songwriter for the band with Jim acting as his second in command. But it was becoming more and more clear to Jim towards the end that Jason didn’t want a collaborative band anymore. So, he decided to test his own skills by playing a few tunes he had written while still with Grandaddy. A few encouraging friends helped to bring about his 2007 debut, “Ten Readings of A Warning”. It was released with mediocre reviews but showed promise.
Now, Jim is gearing up to release a full LP, “Oh For The Getting And Not Letting Go”, and a six song EP that will be available worldwide digitally and physically at his shows. You can listen to two tracks from the full length over at their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/allsmilesmusic.
Album is scheduled for a self-release in April. According to a recent press release, we’re expected to hear “themes of entropy, inequity, strong love, and hope.”
Before their release, the band will be heading out on the road in support of Modest Mouse.
