I had a moment the other night that got me excited about music in a way that I haven't been in quite some time. I owe that moment to Andrew Bird, the violinist/guitarist/folksinger/whistler who has been featured before on our blog here. His cemetary gate sessions, which is a series put on by Pitchfork, is one of the more incredible solo performances I have heard in quite some time. With little more than a fiddle, guitar, a few microphones and an audio looping device he creates some of the most unique musical blends in recent memory. His melodic motives are linear, in that they rarely repeat and favor constant motion instead of verse, chorus, verse, chorus etc. They are a complexly woven tapestry of influences which may include jazz, rock, folk, bluegrass, classical, arabic, and many others. Each song is its own unique journey, hard to describe in comparrison to anything else. Please listen all the way through, they are all great in their own way, and I hope they speak to you the way they speak to me. Ive been listening to these next few songs exclusively for the last three days as my fellow editor will attest to. Even if you think you've heard Andrew Bird, try this, its very different than his studio work, and personally I like it better.
Listen to the songs and read their separate writeups below!
This ones very melodic and slow building until it decides to favor a simpler, poppier melody.
This song is just jazzy as all hell.
Plucky and folky. Probably the most accessible and similar to his studio work.
Possibly my favorite of the group, but I keep changing that, nevertheless this song is BIG. Arcade Firish.
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