Snow!

North Carolina

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

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

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)

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

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

Mmmm...cereal...

Cake it away!

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)

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)

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