About a year ago, I was perusing the a few sites and listening to Ani Difranco (an incredible musical talent who should not go unmentioned...but will have to wait until later or never or who knows....) So, I decided that I would check out the artists who she currently has signed to her record label (Righteous Babe Records). So I stumbled upon an intriguing album title, "Andrew Bird and The Mysterious Production of Eggs" so I appropriately aquired this album, I had to hear it. I thought, "Okay this is good." So I made sure to check out several of his other albums, including the 2007 release of "Armchair Apocrypha" which is almost as good as the 2005 album signed to Righteous Babe Records (Bird is now signed with Fat Possum Records). He also used to contribute to the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
So I had these albums and I would listen to them, my personal favorites being "measuring cups", "opposite day", "fake palindromes", "imitosis", and "a nervous tic motion of the head to the left" and I would think to myself that his music was good, but I don't understand what makes it so special...
...Until I saw him live at Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Oh my gosh, I should have researched this artist first! This beautiful music i was listening to is more or less a solo project. Andrew Bird is well versed in guitar, violin, mandolin, glockenspiel, and whistling.
Like I said earlier, I was in high school concert band, so I played flute, I am not a musician, so I wish someone could explain to me the technique, but Andrew Bird records his tracks and loops them for periods of time. So plucking the violin (he plays his violin like a guitar it's incredible!) will loop while Andrew Bird is in fact bowing). Feist uses the same technique at her live shows (songs such as "Honey Honey"), it's INCREDIBLE to watch. So where Kanye West and Bob Dylan were both overproduced and overrated (well what did i expect?), Andrew Bird was well was the whatever large sum of money that I paid to attend Virgin Festival.
Please watch these videos. Seriously. The Sound quality in the live videos are not the best, but you really need an idea of what his live shows are like. Absolutely fantastic, even if the crowd was not especially enthusiastic! I am in love with this man, what can I say?
Opposite Day Live All Points West (liberty state park, NJ) -- this video, shows how he loops his tracks, you can see him doing it with foot pedals in front of him) the sound is sort of miserable on this recording because the bass is too high
Fake Palindromes Live -- just a good example of his stage presence
just because Andrew Bird is nice to look at, the "imitosis" music video
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