Andrew Bird

Cafe Society
1

The local PBS channel had 42nd Street on tonight, so, since I was home and not otherwise entertaining myself, I turned it on. Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it, I always enjoy it. It’s so … preCode. And Ruby Keeler is so incredibly lame.

Anyway, after that, the next show up was a local arts show called “On Canvas,” which tonight is about some weird David-Byrnish musician who starts… singing. And fiddling. And … making music. It’s so bizarre, and it’s so cool, and who the hell is he?

His name is Andrew Bird. And I obviously need to get at least one of his albums ASAP – but which one? Tell me about this guy! Where has he been all my life?

2

My favourite Andrew Bird album is Oh, the Grandeur!

Had to hang some artwork at the office last week, and by stream-of-consciousness found myself singing Candy Shop:

Well, you let me in your house
You let me in your house
You let me in your house with a hammer
Set to tile or set to stone
Tit for tat and bone for bone
I’m going to set fire to your glamour

Every other song on that album is rock-solid, too.

3

Eh. I’ve heard a bunch of his songs over the last handful of years. “Heretics” is the only one that hasn’t been immediately forgettable. Obviously YMMV.

4

His first two albums with Bowl of Fire are amazing. I love them to bits! That was when he was in his swing phase (he was the fiddler on the Squirrel Nut Zippers albums).

I only got to see him live once, in a small club in Cleveland. He is a very small man! But very very good looking. He looks like he sounds (er, but smaller).

Check out Oh! The Grandeur, Thrills and the Kevin O’Donnell’s Quality Six album Heretic Blues. That’s Andrew at his crooning, fiddling best.

I lost interest in him fast when he switched it up with The Swimming Hour but he gained a whole new audience, and a lot more appreciation, and that’s good.

Fun story: Earlier this year I got an email from someone at Rolling Stone. They were running a story on Bird in the next issue and needed photos. I have a very old Web site about Bowl of Fire on which I posted a ton of live photos from the show I went to plus photos from some other Bird-Fans-Via-SNZ. Except the location where I was hosting the photos was long gone.

Anyway, RS wanted my photos! But first I had to send them examples. So I got out my old photo album and scanned all the good shots of Andrew and sent them low-res copies. They picked 3 and asked for hi-res versions. I was all “errr, wait a minute - what’s my rights?”

But it was Rolling Stone! So I sent them anyway, and then contacted my media law professor from college (who is also a lawyer) and he gave me advice on what to do next. I never heard back from RS, the bitches.

The day the new issue came out I was too excited to work, so I left work and drove all over town to find a copy. I couldn’t find it anywhere, not even the library. I finally drove 20 mins away to Borders and found a copy and opened it up to the Andrew Bird article.

No photos from me :frowning: To be fair to RS, the photos I had weren’t that great. And they only had 1 or 2 in the article total. Oh well…it was a big let down but it did make me feel special for a short bit. I can say I was ALMOST in Rolling Stone!

5

ZipperJJ, that is too cool – it’s like the Academy Awards, it’s an honor just to be nominated.

Sounds like Oh! The Grandeur! is the place to start, with two recommendations. I’m guessing the show was focusing on his newest album, though, since this was a fairly recent performance. Since I have no idea what the names of any of the songs are, though, it’s hard to be sure.

Maybe I should just get both. :smiley:

(“On Canvas” is a really good show, BTW, don’t know if PBS stations elsewhere run it – half hour show, they intersperse interviews and performance footage. I watched two more episodes after Andrew Bird – one on David Koresh [a major figure in Philly dance] and one on the Turtle Island Quartet, who I also like.)

6

My first introduction to Andrew Bird was Armchair Apocrypha, which I love…it’s an almost perfect CD. I can’t speak to all that early stuff.

He also has a couple of good NPR podcasts (All Songs Considered, I think it’s called).

7

Armchair Apocrypha is indeed very brilliant (though I also don’t know his early stuff too well), but …And the Mysterious Production of Eggs is worth getting for the title alone (not that the music isn’t great, also)!

8

I just "discovered’ him yesterday as well, while looking up stuff on St. Vincent (whom I love). I found a great video of him performing in someone’s house (St. Vincent joins him at the end). And I’m glad to see the album recommendations here this morning.

ETA: I didn’t realize his connection with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, one of my favorite bands ever and the second concert I ever went to. He’s even more awesome than I thought.

9

I’ve ordered Oh! The Grandeur and Armchair Apocrypha. Now I just have to wait till they get here.

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Andrew Bird is pretty much the real deal - talented singer, violinist, writer, and even whistler :stuck_out_tongue:

I saw him at Penn State just after he’d come out with Armchair Apocrypha. A great album to be sure, but I wasn’t familiar with it at the time. To my surprise, he played an entire set from my personal favorite, Mysterious Production of Eggs. For that show, it was him, a drummer/keyboardist, and either one other bassist or guitarist. He loops most of the things, so you can really get a feel for how the parts stack on top of and relate to each other.

Glad you got to see him, too!

11

I saw him open a show for Wilco a couple of years ago. I was impressed by the complexity of sound created by a single performer on stage. (And the whistling!)

12

I was telling a friend about him (after spending a fair amount of time on YouTube yesterday afternoon) and described him as the love child of David Byrne and Laurie Anderson.

checks half.com to see if they’ve shipped my CDs yet

13

Yeah, that’s where I saw him too (perhaps at the same show - it was in KC). Hell of a musician, and held the crowd pretty well for an opening act I thought.

14

Get all of them. He really is that good. And being cute doesn’t hurt.

15

Update:

My CDs finally came today. My first reactions:

Oh! The Grandeur – I like swing/jazz with a Paris-in-the-'30s vibe just fine – which is why I own several Django Rheinhart/Stephane Grappelli albums already. Meh.

Armchair Apocrypha – I’m going to have to listen to this a whole bunch of times. <-- that is the ideal reaction to listening to a new album for a first time. I’m definitely intrigued.

16

I am going to have to pitch in with a recommendation for Weather Systems. It’s mostly odd and moody. ‘I’ has perfectly simple lyrics- which are much expanded upon in ‘Imitosis’ on Armchair Apocrypha. It’s a strange little album, but very lovely. I can understand why it’s not a general favourite, it lacks some of the pure zing of Armchair Apocrypha and The Mysterious Production of Eggs but it’s still worth listening to over and over.

17

I’m surprised to hear no rec’s for the latest album. Bird is a recent discovery for me, too, and while I love *Armchair Apocrypha *and …Eggs, I think *Noble Beast *is my favorite.

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I became interested in Andrew Bird after following his blog entries on the New York Times’ blog Measure for Measure (subtitled: “How to Write a Song and Other Mysteries”) See here. You may need to create a (free) account to view this.

He talks about how difficult it is for him to write lyrics: how unlike most musical artists he knows, he doesn’t have a book of poetry and lyrics to which he will put music. Rather, he says that music comes as easy to him as breathing and he spends months putting words to the music, trying one word after another to see what will work in both sound and meaning.

It’s part of a great series of blog posts from a variety of songwriters from Rosanne Cash to Suzanne Vega to Peter Holsapple. Really interesting to aspiring songwriters and the rest of us who just want to know where the ideas come from.

Andrew Bird’s work seems to be widely varied from violin to whistling, instrumental and vocal work. Very quirky and compelling. I really have only listened to a few tracks but have got to try a few of his CDs. Unfortunately, I missed him on the last tour that brought him to Cleveland. (Yes, I’m envying you ZipperJJ!)

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How’s this going for the OP?

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The OP is in loooooooooooooooooooove, thanks for asking.

Oh! The Grandeur is definitely growing on me – there’s way more than a simple imitation of '30s swing going on there.

Armchair Apocrypha just keeps getting better and better. I’m starting to get into the lyrics a little more. (I listen to music really, really oddly – despite the fact that I make my living manipulating words, they’re way down on the list for me of things that are important to me about music. I listen mostly to African, Brazilian, Cuban, etc. – things sung in languages I don’t speak – but am not sure which way the causality runs there, whether I like that music because I don’t understand the lyrics or whether listening to that music has decreased the importance of lyrics for me.) Planning to sit down this afternoon with the lyrics sheet (which – a small italic font in silver on a black background – is really fucking annoying for someone with middle-aged eyes, gotta say) and do a listen-through where I’m paying full attention.

Ordered Eggs and Beast last Monday, and they didn’t freakin’ ship them till Thursday … grrr …

So, yes, very, very happy with Herr Bird.