Birdlips Bloglips

Full Moon Psych Night at the Southern 8/13

2011-08-09T11:02:00.004-04:00

This Saturday is the Full Moon, and the Southern in Charlottesville, VA is the place to be.

Come get swallowed up:

SATURDAY - AUGUST 13

BIRDLIPS

ROYAL FOREST (Austin, TX)

MANORLADY

at The Southern - 8pm

03 South 1st St. (downtown mall) Charlottesville, VA (434)-977-5590

doors at 8:00pm / $5 in advance / $8 day of show

Buy Tickets

===============================

We had a fantastic time playing the 9:30 Club the week before last. It was our first time playing there and a childhood dream come true. Thanks US Royalty!

Summer Tour 2011

2011-05-10T13:36:00.009-04:00

2011 SUMMER TOUR DATES

5/18 - Austin, TX - the Mohawk
5/19 - Houston, TX - Super Happy Fun Land
5/21 - New Orleans, LA - Euclid Records - EARLY SHOW: 5pm
5/22 - Tallahassee, FL - the Farside
5/26 - Orlando, FL - Stardust Lounge
5/29 - Tampa, FL - New World Brewery
6/2 - Savannah, GA - the Sentient Bean
6/4 - Knoxville, TN - the Pilot Light
6/5 - Asheville, NC - the LAB
6/7 - Winston-Salem, NC - The Garage
6/8 - Greenville, NC - the Tipsy
6/9 - Chapel Hill, NC - the Night Light
6/10 - Roanoke, VA - the Bazaar
6/11 - Harrisonburg, VA - the Blue Nile
6/16 - Washington, DC - Velvet Lounge
6/18 - Charlottesville, VA - The Jefferson Theater (w/ the Junior Boys)
6/24 - Brooklyn, NY - The Rock Shop
6/27 - Cambridge, MA - Zuzu
6/28 - Lowell, MA - the Sock Hop
7/1 - Easthampton, MA - Flywheel Arts Collective
7/2 - Providence, RI - the 201
7/7 - Richmond, VA - Strange Matter

RSVP to the FACEBOOK EVENT and help us spread the word!

*Orlando on 5/26 just added
We might add a few more dates so check back soon...

Under Crooked Trees video by Billy Hunt

2011-02-23T19:10:00.006-05:00

Just before heading out to Las Vegas we met up with Billy Hunt in Charlottesville to shoot a video for Under Crooked Trees from One Tongue.

We projected beach footage from our time in Destin, Florida where we recorded One Tongue and then went out to the site of the demolished IX building just in time to catch the dying light of a winters day.

Billy worked his magic and just got us the finished video. He's an awesome dude and super pro to work with! Check out his stuff over at Billy Hunt Photography.

Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

2011-01-26T22:23:00.013-05:00

In the Material World

2011-01-19T15:01:00.007-05:00

We had a nice break from the road this past holiday season visiting our families in northern Virginia, throwing logs in the wood stove and cranking out some new hand-painted copies of One Tongue and Emanations/Powerlines.

I think Lindsay got carpal tunnel from painting non-stop for a few days in a row.

***

gold edition of Emanations/Powerlines from our last tour

'One Tongue' CD Release!

2010-12-30T12:31:00.005-05:00

BIRDLIPS ONE TONGUE
CD RELEASE PARTY
FRIDAY JANUARY 7th:
Olivia Mancini & the Mates
Birdlips (Celebrating the release of our new CD, 'One Tongue')
Greenland
Diamond's Ahead
at THE BLACK CAT (UPSTAIRS)

1811 14th St NW Washington, DC (202) 667-7960
9pm, $10 in advance,
BUY TICKETS HERE

The fourth installment of our DRIFT project, One Tongue, was written and recorded along the beautiful white sand beaches of Destin, FL in October. We've been on tour since then and are finally getting to release it! It will be a magical sensory experience with light and sound.

This will be our last show in the area for a while, as we're headed west to Las Vegas in mid-January to record our next album...and who knows when we will be back! Hopefully not 'til it gets warm again.

Joining us for this lovely evening are:
Olivia Mancini and the Mates: http://www.oliviamancini.com/bio.html
Greenland: http://www.myspace.com/greenland
and Diamond's Ahead

Nov-Dec East Coast Tour Dates

2010-11-10T07:49:00.003-05:00

11/10-Chattnooga, TN - Discoteca
11/11-Charlottesville, VA-Tea Bazaar(w/Matt Hemerlein, Frau Eva)
11/12-Philadelphia, PA-Greenline (w/Cinnamon Band, Lux Perpetua)
11/15-Cambridge, MA - ZUZU (w/Invisible Hand)
11/17-Providence, RI - the 201
11/19-Albany, NY - Jack’s Place
11/20-Brooklyn, NY - Rock Shop (w/La Strada)
11/21-Burlington, VT- the Radio Bean (early show! 7pm!)
12/1-Richmond, VA - the Camel
12/2-Roanoke, VA - the Bazaar (w/the Situationist)
12/3-Lynchburg, VA -Speakertree Records (w/Naked Hearts)
12/7-Winston Salem, NC - the Garage
12/9-Athens, GA - Rye Bar
12/10-Charleston, SC - Tin Roof
12/11-Tampa, FL-New World Brewery(w/GreatDeceivers, SleepyVs)
12/12-Orlando, FL- Will’s Pub (w/Great Deceivers, Sleepy Vikings)
12/16- Birmingham, AL- the Nick
12/18-Knoxville,TN - the Birdhouse

more dates coming soon...

facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125468850843111

Metaphorical Acid + other new EPs!

2010-09-24T12:39:00.011-04:00

New 3 song EP: Metaphorical Acid
recorded summer of 2009 by Thomas Orgren

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://birdlips.bandcamp.com/album/metaphorical-acid"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Metaphorical Acid by Birdlips&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

***

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://birdlips.bandcamp.com/album/emanations"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Emanations by Birdlips&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Emanations
recorded in Anne K.'s apartment in Los Angeles July 2010

***

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://birdlips.bandcamp.com/album/powerlines"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Powerlines by Birdlips&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Powerlines
recorded in the Mission District in San Francisco, April 2010

Writing from a coffee shop in Woodbridge, VA. Lindsay and I have holed up for a few weeks to book an East Coast tour for November and December. We're going to spend the month of October in Pensacola, FL recording some more new songs for our DRIFT project you can read about here.

But first we are playing a show in Lovingston, VA at Rapunzels tomorrow night with Wes Swing!

THIS SAT. SEPT. 25:
Wes Swing + Birdlips
at Rapunzel's in Lovingston, VA
8PM - $5 - ALL AGES
Rapunzel's is 30 miles south of Charlottesville, down 29
924 Front St, Lovingston, VA 22949

We may not be using our college degrees but at least our Alma mater did write an article about us, yay! Read it here on the University of Virginia Magazine's website.

Back on the east coast for a hot second

2010-08-18T22:01:00.013-04:00

Come to our show this Saturday in DC!

And boy is it hot. The humidity here makes it FEEL hotter than the Arizona desert! I can't stand the humidity. I step outside and I'm instantly drenched in sweat.

We're crashing in the DC area right now recuperating from our harrowing trip across the country. After the we got a new (rebuilt) transmission put in the van and got out of Arizona we had to book it to make it to our show in Columbus, Ohio. Along the way, we ran out of gas in between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. We hit this terrible traffic and were sitting in stop and go nonsense for hours when we noticed we were out of fuel and the nearest gas station was 10 miles up the highway! It was also over 100 degrees and we were out of water, but luckily a car in front of us got a flat tire and then broke their jack trying to change the tire so I jumped out and used our jack to get the car back up and help them change it and then they gave us a few bottles of water to tide us over.

A few hours later we ran into another fellow who'd run out of gas but was filling his tank with some spare canisters. He told us about a gas station on the other side of the highway and gave us an empty gas canister. I was able to hop the median and cross several lanes of traffic to walk to this gas station and fill the canister and then we finally made it out of there. When we pulled into the next station 10 miles down the road I was the ecstatic. Absolutely the happiest I'd ever been pulling into a gas station.

We found a motel, slept for 4 hours and then got up to keep driving. Three days of this... driving nonstop, hitting terrible traffic at some point in the day, sleeping for a few hours in some crummy motel, then waking up to do it all over again, just so we could make it to this show in Ohio where we played for like, 6 people. But we met a nice guy who let us crash at his mom's place and demonstrated his newly rebuilt Fender Twin with tremolo at 3am on a weeknight.

"Aren't we going to wake up your mom?"
"Naw, she LOVES it!"

It was a rough stretch, for sure but we survived and our shows up in New England ended up being pretty sweet.

We played in Providence at the 201 with a great bunch of guys and gals called The Loom.

Outside the 201 in Providence

Then we got a slice of late night pizza and got back in the car that night and drove to my family reunion in the Berkshires. Slapping my face the whole way until our arrival at 5am. Sleep for a few hours then BAM! Meet the Ushers.

But after that we had really awesome shows in Boston/Cambridge and Brooklyn, NY.

Whoa! this band we played with in Brooklyn was totally mind blowing!

no link :(

They were called Pocketknife but recently got a cease and desist from the lawyer of a DJ who also calls himself Pocketknife so they will be changing their name. BUT they are recording a new album with Chris Keup near Charlottesville so I'm sure you will be hearing about them soon.

We also played with our friends This Frontier Needs Heroes and had fun hanging out with them after the show, where we met and stayed with Noah from Naked Hearts.

Then we raced back home to hand make 100 limited edition copies of our new Emanations / Powerlines double EP and then to Charlottesville to play at the Southern with two fantastic bands, Red Rattles from Charlottesville and Eternal Summers from Roanoke.

All in all, good times. And after a string of depressing setbacks and exhausting drives we have now had a few days to sleep and get ready for a killer show this Saturday at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in Chinatown with Matt Hemerlein. (Flier at top) See ya there!

Big sky break down in Arizona

2010-07-28T11:47:00.010-04:00

Our van broke down on top of a mountain in beautiful Jerome, AZ. We were able to coast it into the town of Cottonwood where we had someone look at it to tell us the transmission is shot. We're having someone tow the van back to Phoenix to get it fixed and hopefully we'll be back on the road in a few days.

Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to miss a string of dates on this tour. Sorry to anyone that was hoping to make a show in Boulder, CO, Lincoln, NE or Madison, WI. There's a chance we could still make it to the Madison show but it looks unlikely.

We're making the best of it by kicking it AZ style. We were extremely lucky to meet some of the nicest people ever here near Jerome. A publisher we just met in Phoenix introduced us to a prolific songwriter out here named Steve Easterling of Easterling and Gildersleeve. His neighbor and sometimes co-writer is this dude Olen who owns a fudge shop on top of the mountain and has been letting us crash with him. He and his buds even took us off-roading way out into the Arizona desert. It was like being on the surface of another planet. Totally breathtaking. The sky is incredible out here, like nothing I've seen anywhere else. I think partly because you can see so far into the distance.

Despite the major setback in terms of time, lost shows and money for car repairs, we are getting to experience a side of the country we might never have found otherwise, and it's really been a joy being welcomed into someone else's town, home, and life. I feel like we've really tapped in to part of the soul of America here. It's kinda what this DRIFT project is all about. We're only a few weeks in and it's already been a really wild ride but we are learning a lot, going with the flow and soaking up some good stories and experience to use for inspiration.

Show tonight in L.A. at Echo Curio

2010-07-13T15:00:00.007-04:00

Birdlips is currently wandering the USA for our project, DRIFT, where we travel around the country writing, recording, shooting videos and playing shows. We are recording a new EP right now in Los Angeles and we'll be playing just this one show while we're here.

an LA RECORDS 100 show

Tues, July 13th
BIG TREE + THE SHADE + C-HORSE + BIRDLIPS
At Echo Curio
1519 W Sunset Blvd

Show starts at 9PM. I think there is a $5 cover and Birdlips plays last around 11:30PM!

New videos from San Francisco

2010-07-13T14:33:00.004-04:00

Birdlips - High On Yourself shot by Elena Coyle.

Birdlips - Closer (Marin Headlands) shot by Elena Coyle

Birdlips - Powerlines (Marin Headlands) shot by Elena Coyle

Our friend Elena was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule studying for the bar exam and shoot these three videos in the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco last month. We wanted to find the highest, windiest place around for our song High On Yourself. We happened upon this great spot on a cliff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge amidst dilapidated World War II bunkers and we ended up shooting two "take-away" style videos as well. Closer and Powerlines are live, semi-acoustic performances. We used a battery-powered practice amp for the beats and a battery powered Casiotone keyboard. Even though it was warm in the city below, it was really, really windy on the top of that cliff and we ended up getting chilled to the bone. At one point I dropped my guitar pick because my fingers had gone numb.

==================

The song High On Yourself was recorded and mixed by Thomas Orgren in the summer of 2009 in Vienna, VA.

Clifford John - vocals, guitar, drums, percussion
Lindsay Pitts - vocals, keys
Thomas Orgren - electric guitar, bass, drums

Birdlips - Powerlines (Clarion Alley in the Mission, San Francisco) shot by Karate TV

This last one was shot by our friend Crockett Bodelson aka Karate TV in Clarion Alley (in between Mission and Valencia) in the Mission district of San Francisco, June 2010.

Crockett used a tiny Sony HD Handycam mounted to an elaborate boom constructed from found objects (an easel, a tripod, and a golf bag carrier with wheels). It was kind of hard to control but managed to capture the moment in a pretty cool way. The sound is just from the built in camera microphone, and was not edited so it caught a few rattles and creaks from the boom being wheeled and manipulated.

The Mission District is bursting with beautiful murals everywhere, but Clarion Alley is especially cool. Completely covered with art and constantly changing.

Our friend Crockett Bodelson is an awesome and inspiring visual and recording artist of the collaborative painting duo SCUBA. Definitely check out his art, you will be glad you did:

drawingwhiledriving.com/
myspace.com/karatetv

Last show in SF this Thursday 6/24

2010-06-20T20:55:00.003-04:00

Aghh!!! I can't believe it's almost the end of June. Our sublet here in the Mission runs out in a little over a week. We have to finish planning our x-country tour, sell/get rid of a bunch of stuff, practice some of these new songs we've been writing, figure out how to switch web servers...

Oh yeah, our website may be down for a few days, but we're working on a kick-ass new one.

And, we're playing our last show in SF this Thursday, June 24, with two awesome friends we've made in our short time here:

Lucky Cloud is a three piece producing beautiful, atmospheric pop that sounds like raindrops and sunshine falling through the leaves. Karate TV is the reverb dreched, delay rattling, rump-shaking home recording project of Crockett Bodelson, an amazing visual artist and member of the collaborative painting duo SCUBA. Prepare to have your mind blown.

BlueSix is a sweet little intimate venue that, from what we've heard, might be shutting it's doors in the near future. So come out and experience this SF treat before it's too late!

Start Time:	Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 8:30pm
End Time:	Friday, June 25, 2010 at 12:00am
Location:	Blue Six in the Mission (24th St. @ Treat Ave.)
Street:	3043 24th St.
City/Town:	San Francisco, CA

Change of plans... + new tour!

2010-06-18T15:21:00.001-04:00

collage by Lindsay

We've been loving it here in San Francisco, but have realized that we aren't ready to put down roots. So we've concocted a plan for a new project that really has been brewing in our subconscious for quite some time now. The project is called 'drift' and we're going to travel around the USA writing and recording in different places, posting the recordings on our bandcamp page, and writing about the whole process on the blog here.

Ever since we started this blog, we haven't really had a very good idea of what we were doing with it. But now that we have a project in mind, we are going to be posting a lot more frequently and focusing more on what's going on inside our heads in this creative process.

Lindsay and I (me especially) are both über-perfectionists and can easily get overly critical of ourselves. I think that's been one of the things keeping us from putting out more new material over these past few years since we released Cardboard Wings. We've got a few dozen half-finished songs, ideas and incomplete thoughts lying around that we would first be excited about and then abandon thinking "it's not good enough." Recently we were going back through all these song peices on our digital 8-track recorder and were pretty surprised by some of the things we had on there. "Why did we abandon this!?!?" So we have a new determination to finish what we started and also to write a lot more new material without being overly critical. This whole project is going to be an exercise in opening the creative flood gates.

When our lease runs out here in SF, we are headed to LA for a few weeks. One of Lindsay's best friends in an Imagineer for Disney. She has a pretty amazing job designing interactive rides for theme parks and is going to be out of town so we'll have the place to ourselves to do some serious wood shedding.

We've got an EP coming out soon that we recorded with our friend Thomas (from the band the Torches) in my parent's basement in Northern Virginia, and another new EP that we recorded in our bedroom here in San Francisco (Powerlines EP).

After LA we are touring back across the country and down the east coast. Check our MySpace page for the latest tour dates.

Lots of stuff on the horizon...

overwhelmed but excited,
Cliff

La Mission

2010-05-21T13:44:00.004-04:00

just kids...

2010-05-20T18:38:00.003-04:00

"We imagined ourselves as the Sons of Liberty with a mission to preserve, protect, and project the revolutionary spirit of rock and roll. We feared that the music which had given us sustenance was in danger of spiritual starvation. We feared it losing its sense of purpose, we feared it falling into fattened hands, we feared it floundering in a mire of spectacle, finance, and vapid technical complexity. We would call forth in our minds the image of Paul Revere, riding through the American night, petitioning the people to wake up, to take arms. We too would take up arms, the arms of our generation, the electric guitar and the microphone."

-Patti Smith, from her new book Just Kids

around SF

2010-05-10T23:42:00.009-04:00

We Made It!

2010-03-05T16:27:00.015-05:00

This cactus appears to be rocking. Missing a finger, yes, but rocking nonetheless. Hopefully a magical sign of all the rocking that will be happening in San Francisco. YES! It was an exciting journey from Washington DC all the way to California by way of Nashville, Dallas/Fort Worth, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and LA. Thanks to everyone who provided us a place to crash along the way! A brief chronicle in pictures...

Between LA and SF. "No water = no crops"

Phoenix Sunset.

Freak snowstorm in New Mexico. Lots of cars and trucks in the ditch. We drove several hours behind a snowplow going 30 mph.

Almost there!!
****

These last three are from our very own Virginia. We'll miss you, VA! You certainly have a place in our hearts and a charm all your own.

A Farewell to Birdlips: Friday 2/12 at The Southern

2010-02-02T13:11:00.005-05:00

This is it folks! We're leaving for the west coast in two weeks, so this will be our last east coast show for the foreseeable future, but we will be back. Please come out, hang out with us and wish us luck, it will be a magical night. We've got new material to play for you, plus two bands we think are absolutely incredible and our favorite DJs Shay Shay the Wulf Baby and Smooth Jones spinning Mod, Soul, and RnB records. Then we're packing the van and driving to California!

Friday February 12

The Southern Presents:
A Farewell to Birdlips
with Sarah White and the Pearls
and the Cinnamon Band

Stay late and party
with DJs Shay Shay the Wulf Baby and Smooth Jones.

Doors: 9:00 PM
Ticket Price: $8.00
BUY TICKETS
All Ages General Admission

at The Southern on the downtown mall
103 South 1st St.
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434)-977-5590

Sherman Arts "All Creatures" Compilation (a story)

2010-01-27T11:24:00.009-05:00

*** LINK TO THE COMPILATION ZIP FILE ***

Once upon a time, Cliff and Lindsay, also known as Birdlips, lived in a cute little house in the Woolen Mills neighborhood of Charlottesville, VA. It was a glorious neighborhood, full of cute little houses; old houses with lots of personality and all kinds of characters who lived inside them. In the backyard behind Cliff and Lindsay's house there was a family of groundhogs: a mama and two babies who lived under a shed. Just down the street there was a warehouse called DUST that had lots of sweet underground shows. Lindsay and Cliff went to many of these shows and eventually played at one of these shows with a delightful band from Louisiana called The Peekers. Lindsay and Cliff had seen the Peekers before and loved them and were very happy to play with them and see them again.

After the show, the Peekers gave Cliff and Lindsay this:

It was a CD by another artist on their label (Park the Van Records), a singer songwriter named Pepi Ginsberg. Cliff and Lindsay played the CD in their car whenever they were driving around over the next few weeks and thought it was soooo coool.

Months past, and then randomly one night Lindsay and Cliff found themselves in the DC area with nothing to do. Upon checking the listings at the local venues they saw that none other than Pepi Ginsberg was performing at a small little club in the Atlas District that Birdlips had played at many times before: The Red and The Black. Lindsay and Cliff went to the show and were totally blown away. Pepi and her band were even better live than on the CD!

Cliff and Lindsay talked to Pepi after the show about music, booking shows, being in a band, etc. and it came out that Birdlips was trying to play some shows in Philly in the near future. Pepi, who is from Philly, recommended playing The Greenline Cafe. A guy named Rich Wexler set up shows there on a regular basis under the name Sherman Arts and did a great job promoting independent artists in the area.

One thing led to another and soon Birdlips was playing the Greenline Cafe every time they passed through Philly. Rich had his act together and made sure there were always some other cool local bands on the bill, and some interested peoples in the audience. He also hooked Birdlips up with some free sandwiches to fill their starving bellies on numerous occasions.

One of Birdlips' favorite memories of Rich in action at a show was when several people were talking during another band's set. The Greenline is a small place and it is so annoying when people are talking during the music! Rich walked up to them and said, "If you want to talk while the band is playing, you can do it outside." That was awesome. Rich is someone who cares about the music.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Rich is hanging up his Sherman Arts hat and passing the baton so he can pursue other paths in life for the time being. As a parting gift, he has put together a wonderful little compilation of bands he has worked with over the past few years. Birdlips is one of those bands, but there are also 36 other band on the compilation as well. It's free to download, and highly recommended.

LINK TO THE COMPILATION ZIP FILE

More info about the compilation HERE.

Farewell to DC tonight

2010-01-18T11:03:00.008-05:00

TONIGHT we are opening for Vetiver at IOTA in Arlington!

IOTA Club and Cafe
2832 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 522-8340
** 8:30PM $15 **

Howdy folks. Cliff from Birdlips here. Lindsay and I have recently decided to move to the West Coast, specifically San Francisco. We are leaving in February so this will probably be our last show in the DC area for who knows how long. We were able to land this gig opening for Vetiver, a really awesome band who just also happens to be from San Fran, so we figured it would be an appropriate farewell show.

You can listen to Vetiver's great music here: http://www.vetiverse.com/mediaplayer/

We will also be playing a farewell show in Charlottesville Friday Feb. 12 at the Southern.

Birdlips needs your help!
Do you know anyone in San Francisco who might be hiring / subletting / renting out their place / or possibly looking for house sitters? Or any cool people we should try to hang out with when we get there? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. We need all the help we can get.

Also, you can now support us by buying our music (pay what you want) directly from us on bandcamp, or you can listen for free:
BANDCAMP

***

Holidaze

2010-01-09T02:00:00.013-05:00

December was a whirlwind of Family Events and Holiday Things You Have To Do. As far as holidays go, I don't care much for Christmas but family is important and we are soooo lucky to have fantastic, supportive families to spend time with.

In an effort to block out the massive avalanche of xmas consumer crap that explodes in your face this time of year, we tried to make our own holiday cards and most of the meager gifts we gave. It was a semi-successful and extremely time consuming endeavor, but very much worth it. Making things is fun, especially when you are doing it with love.

I scanned some of the cards we made before we sent them so I would have something to post on this blog which we have been neglecting. Poor bloglips.

Comedy and music in DC tomorrow night

2009-12-29T10:44:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays! This should be a very cool night. There will be two shows that will start on time (sort of like a live movie) and it costs 6 dollars. The show times are 9:30 and 11:00PM. We've been a fan of Matt Hemerlein for a while now and he is always amazing to see live. Please check out his MySpace page. Also, there will be two very funny comedians performing as well.

Check out the FACEBOOK EVENT for more info.

Asylum
2471 18th Street Washington,
DC NW 20009
202.319.9353

Giving a Quality Cat Massage and Jammin'

2009-11-11T11:52:00.007-05:00

culture jamming

Found this pic on the internet somewhere...

I don't know if those of you reading this birdlips blog are into cats, but I sure am.
Priceless.

Lying Low + Food Inc.

2009-11-06T11:20:00.006-05:00

So we got back from our first national tour about two months ago. We put somewhere between nine and ten thousand miles on the tour mobile in about six weeks and had an incredible time. Now we're living with parents in the DC area since we broke the bank on our, teaching some music lessons, working on new material and plotting a move to the west coast, probably San Francisco. We're going to try to do another tour through the south and the southwest to make our way out there and then just stay.

We're going to start playing shows again this month. Charlottesville, DC, possibly New York, North Carolina... Check out our MySpace page to see what's happening.

+++

On another note, we've been reading a lot and watching a bunch of documentaries about pretty maddening things. The process of educating ourselves about our role in the world has made us really mad, and frustrated but it's also made us realize that we have to accept personal responsibility for our own actions. Everything we do matters and has an impact, even if it's a small one. This documentary, Food Inc. just came out on DVD this week and it is amazing. Everybody needs to go see it right now, for real.

San Francisco aka "Heaven"

2009-09-08T18:20:00.007-04:00

We came into San Fran from the north. Bursting out of Waldo tunnel I was knocked breathless by my first sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. Fog was rolling over the hillside like a kettle boiling over. On such a massive scale, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Driving over the bridge was surreal. I turned and said to Lindsay, "We gotta move here."

So, I must confess that Lindsay and I had somewhat of an ulterior motive for doing this cross country tour. We've been thinking about moving to a new city for a while now and this was a good excuse for us to scope out a bunch of new places.

If any one place we visited on this tour really grabbed us, it was San Francisco. The cool, beautiful weather, the progressive, artistic culture, the laid-back, unpretentious vibe, the sweet vintage clothing stores... what's not to love? Oh yeah, the ridiculously high cost of living, the junkies, the fact that California is going bankrupt and it may be impossible to find a job... Oh well, every city has it's pros and cons I guess.

Golden Gate Park

We spent most of our time hanging out in the Haight, the Mission, and Golden Gate Park. We stayed with our friend Jason in the Mission and played a fantastic house show with John Heart Jackie (the same lovely duo we played with in Portland). We had such a great parking spot near our friend's place in the Mission that we decided to carry our gear on foot to the house show. It was about a 25 minute walk and on the way back a wheel popped off Lindsay's keyboard case. Needless to say our hands and arms were quite sore the next day.

Here's some photos Lindsay snagged one day heading out of the city at sunset:

Wine Tasting in Sonoma

2009-08-19T04:40:00.006-04:00

Finished the Golden Compass book on tape on the drive from Grants Pass to San Francisco. It was sooooo good. Even better than I remember from reading it in 7th grade. Why didn't we burn the Subtle Knife too? We stayed with some relatives (slept in their awesome pool house) in Novato, California. Checked out the wicked artwork hanging all over their pad and got to spend a very relaxing day kicking it in Sonoma.

There were supposed to be elk in the fields where Cliff was standing. Alas, we saw many signs advertising elk jerky, so perhaps they have all been turned into jerky.

Trees! In the Redwoods with Bigfoot

2009-08-19T04:33:00.012-04:00

Lindsay blinded by the sun
and Cliff preparing to hug a giant tree

When a redwood falls in the forest, does it make a sound?

So tall!!

These trees can be thousands of years old. Humbling.

Cliff searches for boogers!!

Gimme some Bigfoot lovin'!

Grants Pass, OR

2009-08-19T04:27:00.007-04:00

We totally stayed here.

Seattle

2009-08-19T02:52:00.004-04:00

Birdlips at the Skylark in West Seattle
by Jake

Cliff and Jake at Alki Beach

The Experience Music Project
free on the 1st Thursday of the month!

The apartments from that movie Singles

Filling in the Gaps

2009-08-08T13:07:00.004-04:00

Flashback to:

August 5

Mercury Cafe in Denver was a very cool place. Great food, great atmosphere, awesomely decorated, kind of like Tea Bazaar in Cville but 6 times the size. They had a really nice big stage upstairs and a smaller stage downstairs that we played on. When we showed up the place was packed with people having dinner but by the time we went on at 10pm everybody had left. So we played to 3 people plus the staff, who were very nice. Apparently there was something going on that night, some activist speaking somewhere or something that all the people who normally hang out and come to shows there were at. That's what someone told us, at least. We would definitely like to play there again though, I think the staff liked us and would try to get their friends out next time. We've been selling CDs and t-shirts most places also, so that's helping.

We spent a day hanging out in Boulder, CO. Seemed like a really cool town. Reminded me of Asheville or a bigger cville. Very hippy-dippy. There's a little coffee shop there called the Laughing Goat that has music. Mostly singer/songwriter stuff but it could be something for us to hit up next time we pass through.

We played a mini-show in our friend's living room in Salt Lake City. She invited some friends over, it was fun.

Mississippi Pizza in Portland went pretty well. The sound was good, and John Heart Jackie (Peter and Jenny) sounded beautiful and were super nice. Christian from Le Loup was there. He missed our set but was really nice and bought a t-shirt anyway. We had some friends that came out to see us and some other people that were there seemed to really dig it. The one weird thing about it was that there were a fair amount of people there just out of thier kickball or softball league games and they were there to drink and talk and seemed a little put-off by the live music that was preventing them from hearing each other. They weren't rude, they just didn't want to hear music. Anyway, it was a good place for a first show in Portland, but I don't think I would want to play there again if we came back through town.

+++++++

July 29

The Slowdown in Omaha was great! The two other bands we played with were excellent and the venue is really, really nice. Like, fancy nice. Great sound system and all the people who worked there were really friendly. The soundguy, Aaron, was fantastic. Turnout was ok for a Tuesday night - I think there were like 25 people there. Looked a little empty for a room that can probably hold 300, but they left tables and chairs set up so it was spread out. They let us play in the middle in between the two local acts even though we were billed as the headliner, so that worked out good for us.

It seems like turnout here can be hit-or miss. They said Dirty Projectors played there a little while ago to a room of 15 people!

The venue is on this little block that apparently is entirely owned by Saddle Creek records and consists of a coffee/sandwhich shop, an Urban Outfitters, an American Apparel and in independent film theater. There's not much else in the immediate area but Omaha's downtown pedestrian mall, "The Old Market" is only a 5 minute drive away and had some good eats, art galleries and a pretty cool record shop called Homers. We passed out some handbills around there but were not able to busk because it started raining. :(

Land of Port, OR and SLC, UT

2009-08-05T14:42:00.005-04:00

A classy Polaroid courtesy of Peter
(of John Heart Jackie) and his retro camera.

Macleay Park, Portland

Peter and Jenny of John Heart Jackie
at Mississippi Pizza

Birdlips Tees by Thomas Dean!

Views from the Altima

2009-08-05T14:39:00.002-04:00

Mercury Cafe in Denver

2009-08-05T14:30:00.002-04:00

The Slowdown in Omaha, NE

2009-07-29T15:23:00.004-04:00

What a great night for our first time in Omaha! The Slowdown was really fantastic and the bands we played with were breathtaking.

Birdlips with Brad Hoshaw

Brad Hoshaw has a gorgeous voice and impeccable song-writing. The kind of honest music that cuts you to the core.

We got to catch a unique lineup for Midwest Dilemma - flute, clarinet, upright bass and two guitars. Male and female vocals that were dead on and some really beautiful heart of americana songs. Wish we had a recording of that performance!

Project Lodge in Madison, WI

2009-07-27T10:34:00.006-04:00

Birdlips as captured by Brad Lauretti

Great show at a wonderful little art space in Madison, Wisconsin last night, run by the kind and lovely Kendra and Christopher. We even had a write-up in the Onion here. Played with the bands This Frontier Needs Heroes and Attack Ponies. And look at all the beautiful people that came!

Project Lodge in Madison, WI

Jessica and Brad of This Frontier Needs Heroes
These guys were great! Check out their music. Seriously.

Cornbread

2009-07-26T03:32:00.008-04:00

Niagara Falls (Canadian Side)

Chicago

First days of Summer Tour 2009

2009-07-21T21:51:00.006-04:00

Well it's day five of our supposedly 2 month long tour (still working on shows for the return trip), and we are going strong. It's our first day off and it's been raining all day here in Cambridge, MA. Our shows so far have been awesome. While it's not like we are playing to packed houses, we have seen some awesome bands, met some awesome people, and had a generally pretty great response to the music.

Here's a dorky pic of us at Grimaldi's Coal Brick Oven Pizzeria in Brooklyn, according to some the best pizza in New York. We had to wait in line outside for an hour but I have to admit it was worth it. Normally it's the dough/crust that make a great pizza for me but in this case what made this pizza kick ass was that they used the most incredible fresh mozerella I've ever had, along with fresh basil and really, really dank pepperoni.

Our friend John Ruscher did a little write up of our show at Union Hall in Brooklyn on his blog HERE, and he took this video!

Birdlips Late Summer Migration (aka TOUR!!)

2009-05-28T22:58:00.005-04:00

Mid-July we are embarking on our very first cross-country US tour. We're still working on planning, but we are going to start putting some dates on our myspace page soon, so you can start hassling your friends all across the US.

Also we are playing in Chapel Hill tomorrow with our pals the Never and (previously blogged about) Wes Phillips and are very excited about it. Yessssss. (Local 506, doors 8:15 pm)

I will leave you with this pretty picture I found on the internet while stalling writing this blog post. It's monarch butterflies migrating! I wish I was standing right in the middle of the forest.

Tracks on Repeat

2009-04-25T13:14:00.004-04:00

We recently recorded our song "tracks on repeat" out at Monkeyclaus Studio in Nelson County VA. This is a song we've been playing live for a while now so it feels good to finally get it down. You can listen to and download the song HERE.

Cliff - vocals and guitar
Lindsay - vocals and keyboard
Lindsay and Cliff - drums and percussion
Abel Okugawa - Echoplex and recording/engineering

Sun!!

2009-03-09T10:47:00.006-04:00

Snow!

2009-03-03T01:57:00.003-05:00

North Carolina

2009-03-01T13:49:00.011-05:00

On this past tour we made it down to NC for the first time and really enjoyed it. We played in Asheville one night and 2 shows in Chapel Hill.

Bowerbirds - Hymns For a Dark Horse
[website]

Met this band at our show at the Cave in Chapel Hill. (They are doing some touring with La Strada soon). We got their LP shortly after getting back and have been listening to it day and night on repeat. It's got such a deep, dark, earthy, bittersweet sound that I absolutely love. It's sparse and sounds like it was recorded in a cabin in the woods. The sweetly dissonant guitar plucking reminds me of Nick Drake; kind of an Andrew Bird or Beirut thing going on in the vocals; ominous accordion and violin lines, perfect roomy backing vocals and an overall cobwebs and creaky boards mood that reminds me of Grizzly Bear's Yellow House. Love the sage-like perspective in the lyrics. They have toured with some other really great bands including Bon Iver, John Vanderslice, and the Mountain Goats and hopefully we will be hearing more from them soon.

We made and passed out a ton of these handbills
the day of the show in Chapel Hill.

Asheville seemed like a cool town. Similar vibe to Charlottesville but definitely much bigger and a little fancier. Kinda like if someone tried to make a city that was a cross between Charlottesville and Georgetown, this is what you would get. La Strada put on a great show as usual and we got to listen to their new EP on the drive there. We also played with a really cool band called King Tut who were supper nice guys and put on an awesome show. Their recordings are pretty varied (check out the Books inspired "Here It Is and There It Goes") but their live stuff is very much in the Maserati / Battles vain of loop based, dancy math rock.

Tried to take a pic of Ted from La Strada in Asheville
but at exactly that moment he played a sick riff
and it broke the camera!

Wes Phillips at the Owl Room

In Chapel Hill we stayed with our friends the Never at the Trekky Records house and also played an afternoon show in their living room, aka the Owl Room. They had a roaring fire and some magical teas and cupcakes in celebration of Valentinesday. La Strada and this incredible singer songwriter Wes Phillips played as well. Wes Phillips totally blew our minds and gave us chills. Beautiful, beautiful music. He used to play in a band with the folks from Bowerbirds. Please go check out his stuff on his myspace page. "Poor Thing" is my personal fav.

Some 'roids from Feb Tour

2009-02-23T14:44:00.012-05:00

Gravity Lounge (Charlottesville, VA) - 2/12/09

Holy crap, people actually payed money to see us!
We love you guys!

James from La Strada, kicking ass on the accordion.

La Strada ('the road' in Italian) is amazing. Super sweet string arrangements and just an all around great live band. Getting to see them play four nights in a row was a real treat. They have an EP coming out real soon. Check their myspace page for upcoming shows.

Kaveh played a rockin' set with DBB Plays Cups, then got too drunk to stand. DBB Plays Cups is an incredible musical project led by David Benson. Check out his recent interview with UVA's the Declaration: READ IT HERE

The Camel (Richmond, VA) - 2/11/09

The band we were supposed to open for canceled last minute because their van broke down or something but we got the pleasure of meeting a fantastic musician new to the Richmond scene, Ward Combs. Go catch him live somewhere for some really beautiful original tunes.

Iota (DC) - 2/10/09

Great turnout, great sound, great venue. Everyone was a pleasure to work with and they have the best fries in the world. Devon Sproule & Her In-Laws were amazing. They covered "This Will Be Our Year" by the Zombies, which we really enjoyed. Really liked what we've heard of her husband as well. Ben Rowny shot this video of us playing "tire chains" out back on the patio behind Iota after the show:

Birdlips - Tire Chains from Ben Rowny on Vimeo.

Tour Dates: February 2009

2009-02-09T19:25:00.006-05:00

2/10 - IOTA - Arlington, Va - w/Devon Sproule & Her In-Laws
2/11 - The Camel - Richmond, Va - w/The Delicious
2/12 - Gravity Lounge - Charlottesville, Va w/La Strada + DBB Plays Cups
2/13 - Bobo Gallery - Asheville, NC - w/La Strada + King Tut
2/14 - The Owl Room - Chapel Hill, NC - w/La Strada + Wes Phillips
2/15 - The Cave - Chapel Hill, NC - w/La Strada
2/20 - Millcreek Tavern - Philadelphia, PA
2/21 - Pianos - NYC

Some Favorites of 2008 (Part 3)

2009-02-09T14:56:00.011-05:00

High Places

A "new-primitive" duo out of Brooklyn. I love bands that sound like their name, and this is a great example. High Places sound like wind spirits rippling through the evergreens on the top of a misty mountain, carrying the faint nursery rhyme chants of girls playing in the valley below. This is some fresh, cool, spring water music. They put out a really exciting collection of singles (“03/07 – 09/07”) a while back and this, their self-titled debut, is even better.

Check out an entire incredible live show of theirs at Market Hotel in Brooklyn over at pitchfork.tv.

Dungen - 4

I fell in love with Dungen when I first saw the video for "Panda" off their 2004 LP Ta Det Lungt. Got to see them at Satellite Ballroom back in '06 and it was rediculous. There was hardly anyone there and they had this huge wall of vintage gear and they were on their way to play at Bonnaroo and barely spoke any English. Their music sounds like it was recorded in 1969, ONLY BETTER. All their records are chock-full of incredible fuzzed-out, acid-drenched psychedelia. Check out their latest for the sickest guitar, keyboard, drum and bass tones you have ever heard. Make sure you got yourself a decent pair of speakers or headphones.

PANDA

Deerhunter - Microcastle / Wierd Era Continued

This one has been getting many rotations in the Birdlips tour-mobile. As I might have mentioned before, Bradford Cox from Deerhunter and Atlas Sound is kinda an idol of mine. This double CD set is amazing. I mean, just look at the track titles for Weird Era Cont. Does it get any better than that?

01 Backspace Century
02 Operation
03 Ghost Outfit
04 Dot Gain
05 Vox Celeste
06 Cicadas
07 Vox Humana
08 VHS Dream
09 Focus Group
10 Slow Swords
11 Weird Era
12 Moon Witch Cartridge
13 Calvary Scars II / Aux. Out

Very Vest Friends

2009-01-26T15:54:00.004-05:00

In the backyard in C'ville. Photo by Jordan of Corsair / Nice Jenkins. Can you spot his Brandy in the grass?

Mmmm...cereal...

2009-01-24T19:35:00.004-05:00

Cake it away!

2009-01-11T00:11:00.002-05:00

We discovered Mazzy Star by way of Beach House when reading blogs/zines saying that Beach House was channeling a very Mazzy Star vibe, so we got an album.

I normally don't like female singers, because it sounds like they're trying too hard. I do however have a few exceptions. Grace Slick, Stevie Nicks, and Ann and Nancy Wilson, to name a few. But today I am writing about Hope Sandoval singer of Mazzy Star, who realized their moment in history with mid '90s hit “Fade Into You”.

Kind of 90s, yes, but look past it and you realize it's really sweet. And the vocals: earnest and effortless.

peace out, LP

Some Favorites of 2008 (Part 2)

2009-01-08T15:34:00.009-05:00

DBB Plays Cups

Super-unique, catchy songs that always seem on the verge of breaking apart, yet somehow the magical dark matter in them provides the necessary gravity to hold it together. Reminds me of a much weirder version of the Magnetic Fields with a little Velvet Underground influence sprinkled in the mix.

For being such a small town, Charlottesville actually has a pretty awesome number of great musicians and bands. That being said, if I were to pick a favorite local artist of 2008 it would have to be DBB Plays Cups. In the spring of '08 a kindergarten teacher here in town named David Benson (DBB) made a freakin' awesome record which has yet to see a proper release. He usually plays with a band whose lineup is slightly different every show. One of the main contributing members is our friend John Ruscher, formerly of the C-Ville and founder of Nailgunmedia.com. As of now, DBB Plays Cups has supposedly just finished a second full-length album but I don't think the band has a website or myspace page. All I can say is, you gotta try to go see them live; it's really incredible.

Vampire Weekend

Somehow Lindsay and I weren't really aware of the hype surrounding this record when we got it, which may have helped make it such a pleasant surprise. This is one of those albums where all the songs stick in your head for weeks. Great hooks, great clean production, and overall a great pop album. Perfect for spring or summer weather, chilling outside, driving with the windows down, being happy and not thinking too deeply about anything. I think that if the Beatles were young Ivy-League kids living in the northeast US today, this is what their music would sound like. I like how every song on the album sounds like a different style of music but it all sounds like their name.

Shaun Harvey of cvilleMUSE turned me on to this sweet Wes Anderson-style music video:

Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
[blog]

The lead singer of the band Deerhunter has an awesome solo project called Atlas Sound. This guy, Bradford Cox, has become a sort of idol for me this past year. He has a great blog where he is constantly posting new material for free download. He is so prolific and all of his projects are amazing. In fact, the new Deerhunter album was also one of our favorites of the past year. But anyway, I spent many a hot summer day in my cool, cave of a bedroom soaking in these blissful psychedelic sounds. It's more about texture than melody, but every part of it is beautiful. Bradford Cox does his own graphic design too, which I think is really cool. Click on the album cover to get a better look at the Lichtenstein / Warhol influenced pop art.

Beck - Modern Guilt

Superb start to finish. This is the album I wish I had made this past year. We both love Beck, but sometimes his records are a little too long or unfocused for my taste. This one is much different from all his other albums, and it's definitely my new favorite. It's got the focus of Sea Change but sounds like a late 60's / early 70's psychedelic pop album. And he's got some really tight videos to go along with it.

Check out 'Orphans' and 'Gamma Ray'

I've got a couple more I'll post later

~Clifford John

Some Favorites of 2008 (Part 1)

2009-01-02T13:01:00.010-05:00

Been meaning to do a little post about some of the albums we've been digging this past year, so here they are in the order we came across them:

Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
[myspace]

We went up to play a show at Cake Shop in NYC in January of '08 and when we were hanging out with some friends in Brooklyn we asked if there were any sweet up-and-coming Brooklyn bands. They gave us a copy of Yeasayer's new album (technically a 2007 release) and it blew both our minds collectively on the drive home the next day. We went and saw Yeasayer later that month at the Black Cat in DC. They played downstairs to a writhing sold out madhouse. MGMT opened for them. MGMT has really blown up this past year but I personally think Yeasayer is a much stronger band both live and on recording. Although I must say Yeasayer is even better live than on the record. It's hard for an album to capture the energy of a live show as spectacular as Yeasayer's blend of psychedelic / spiritual world-prog. The prog rock aspect comes out a lot more in the live show. Kind of like Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, TV on the Radio, and Kansas all rolled into one. SEEEEEE

Check out '2080'

#87.2 - YEASAYER - 2080
Uploaded by lablogotheque

Beach House - Devotion
[myspace]

Absolutely one of our favorite bands. Devotion is their second album, although Lindsay and I were both really into their debut when we first met. We went to go see them at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC with Papercuts, another very cool and retro band back in August of 2007. When we saw them, Beach House was a guy-girl duo (although now they tour with a drummer). The guy (Alex Scally) plays guitar and the girl (Victoria Legrand) plays keyboard and they play over simple beat tracks and use lots of reverb. Lindsay and I were thinking of getting a band together to play the stuff we were recording (Cardboard Wings) and we were like "ohhh, we can do this for Birdlips; we can just be a duo!" Their first album was great and the second, Devotion, is even better.

The awesome video for 'Master of None' from their first album:

More to come tomorrow.

Clifford John

Sleep

2008-12-22T11:59:00.006-05:00

Cliff just taught me how to make a blog post (step 1: turn on the computer) and I thought I'd write about what I was thinking about, which is sleep. Our roommate, Marie, works at this organic soap company through which she gets magazines. One magazine, called Utne, had a bunch of articles about how the modern consumer culture looks down on rest and people feel compelled to work work work to be more productive, but really what we are producing is poorer quality because we're not giving ourselves enough rest to feel refreshed enough to think more creatively.

And I started thinking about what Cliff and I have been doing the past year, which is basically working our jobs as little as possible, to allow ample time for doing music. But, it's not like we spend every free minute writing songs or booking shows. Not including when we're on the road, I've been getting a good 8 hours of sleep a night, which is unheard of in America these days. And now that I'm thinking about it, this is the first time in years that I've really felt refreshed and mentally alert. And physically it's awesome too. Cliff has a bit of a cold today, but I don't think he's really been sick this whole year. We spend a ton of time doing birdlips, but we make sure we get enough rest so that we are invigorated and excited about it. So, go take a nap, don't feel bad about "wasted time", wake up and do something awesome.

~LP

Wordships Logblips

2008-12-21T13:31:00.005-05:00

Hello from birdlips. For those of you who don't know us, we are a guy-girl duo from Charlottesville, Virginia. We've got a self-released album out now called Cardboard Wings. We've got a website [ www.birdlipsmusic.com ] but it's difficult to update so we are planning to use this blog to put up stories and pictures from the road, videos people take of us, and random stuff things we like.

Much, much more coming soon.

Clifford John and L.P.