Andrew Bird Revisited

I'm still on the Andrew Bird bandwagon. In this NPR Interview with Liane Hansen he talks about how much he likes to whistle, starting the violin at age 4, and living in a barn in western Illinois to concentrate on music. He says a typical day on the farm includes getting up, getting some eggs from his chickens, making an omelet and some coffee and then having all day to experiment/obsess, no interruptions whatsoever. He found the solitude and total control so appealing that he decided to forgo working with a band and recorded almost all the parts for his latest album.

There's another interview with Andrew Bird at Chicago Public Radio - Audio Library: Eight Forty-Eight that's interesting. They talk about his background in classical music, the variety of musical styles he uses and, the looping technique you will hear in many of his songs.

This is the cover of the album "Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs" -

Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs

I think that picture alone is almost reason enough to buy the album (oops I forgot people don't buy albums anymore)...so it's the CD cover and it will be pretty dinky, but it's still a funny/interesting drawing.

I'm listening to "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" recorded live from the Paradiso in Amsterdam at fabchannel.com. I like the beginning where he is picking the violin, uses a looping station to repeat the violin, and then starts whistling - and the way he plays with words like "stretched out on the tarmac six miles south of North Platte" and then turns it around to "splayed out on a bathmat six miles north of South Platte." The cool cat on the snare drums is - well - cool.

He's a poet with a sense of humor and a talented musician, who comes up with amazingly good phrases like,

"when the words we use have lost their bite / now they hit you like an imaginary pillow fight"

from the song "Banking on a Myth".

It makes his music more appealing to watch the video of his performance in Amsterdam at fabchannel, listen to some of his interviews, and read some of the lyrics, rather than just listen to the album. It will give you a feel for the energy he exhibits in a live performance and give you a chance to catch some of the subtle messages in the words.

Very good stuff.