Apparently there's a whole crapload of people already on the Andrew Bird train, which pulled out of the station sometime around 1996. Heck, the guy has been on Letterman and somehow I've never heard of him, but I've probably never heard of your mother, and it is entirely possible that she's been on Letterman too, because I don't own a TV.
Anyways, I know I'm a latecomer but Andrew Bird is sublime. I thought Owen Pallet had the looper nailed down (and he is extremely good, extremely), but Bird's live performances that I've seen on Youtube hold me mesmerized and I'm not even in the room with him. I don't own any of his albums, but the next time I have a few quid to spare, I'm heading straight to Rough Trade and picking one up. I don't know how to describe his music, existential-violin-rock meets beat poets and twitchy asylum inmates is probably the best description I can give. Bird melds all sorts of influences into his music, I can't even really pull them apart, but it's definitely worth checking out. My particular favorites are Nervous Tick of Motion to the Left, and Imitosis.
Ok, forget this. I can't come up with anything that describes this properly, so here Andrew is in all his glory. All the instruments are played live, he uses a looper.
I'm happy you like him ... I like when I can introduce YOU to something new for once.
It was a good friend of mine from Paris who introduced me to Andrew Bird. This friend mentioned that he had changed his life because of a line of a song. When I asked what the line was, it was one of Andrew Bird's: "life's too long to be a whale in a cubicle" from Plasticities (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o84xNCLTREY&feature=related). I have to admit that going back to work in a cubicle has meant having this song stuck in my head for 6 weeks. Thankfully, it's a brilliant song. Anyway, that's MY current fave Andrew Bird song ... :-)
(PS: I kinda know Final Fantasy, but never really got into it. I'll definitely give him another listen, tho).
Posted by: Danielle | October 15, 2008 at 07:33 PM