Andrew Bird
Noble Beast
Fat Possum
January 20th 2009
I first saw Andrew Bird perform as I watched back stage at 2005’s inaugural Intonation Festival in Chicago’s Union Park. He performed with a lone drummer and a loop machine, displaying his truly awe-inducing proficiency at layering himself over and over until the fullest, deepest chorus emitted from the stage stacks. It was this first encounter that attached me to his third solo record The Mysterious Production of Eggs. It was a record that defined the summer of 2005 along with the other monster releases of that year. While I cannot say that Noble Beast is a return to his earlier work—he has after all an extraordinarily lengthy and impressive repertoire, the vast majority of which sounds nothing like the music of recent years—it is worth noting that Mr. Bird has walked back a bit the more refined direction he pursued with his fourth solo release Armchair Apocrypha, returning instead to slightly more grainy rhythmic loops and eloquently worded lyrics.
The new terrain Andrew Bird chooses to explore with Noble Beast is something of a somber excursion narrated by songs written with epic cadences and animistic themes. The two most rewarding deviances from his prior works are Not a Robot, But a Ghost and Anonanimal, the later of which contains Bird’s finest song writing. Some might accuse him of dipping his toes into full fledged post-rock mockery, Tortoise meets Explosion in the Sky, but the sheer quality of the track quickly wins over and grumblings. Andrew Bird still has his obsessions with medical terminology and molecular compounds, with calcium revisiting his lyric book yet again. This record is punctuated with quaint interludes belying his fascinations with Irish folk and bluegrass. In fact the personal sentiment drawn from Nobel Beast is a result of looking back at the foundational elements of individual style, of looking inward and returning to a sense of self; while at the same time launching forward again, looking at new prospects and new tones of expression without releasing that which make him so great. Nobel Beast is simply said his best record yet.
-FF
http://www.andrewbird.net/
http://www.myspace.com/andrewbird
Other Records
As Bowl of Fire
Thrills (1998)
Oh! The Grandeur (1999)
The Swimming Hour (2001)
As Andrew Bird
Music of Hair (1996)
The Ballad of the Red Shoes EP (2002)
Fingerlings (2002)
Weather Systems (2003)
Fingerlings 2 (2004)
The Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005)
Fingerlings 3 (2006)
Armchair Apocrypha (2007)
Live In Montreal (2008)
Fitz and the Dizzy Spells EP (2009)
Noble Beast (2009)
Tour
Jun-8 Merriweather Post Pavilion Columbia , MD
Jun-14 Bonnaroo Manchester, TN
Jun-15 Cobb Energy PAC Atlanta, GA
Jun-18 Radio City Music Hall New York, NY
Jun-19 Bank of America Pavilion Boston, MA
Jul-10 Greek Theatre Los Angeles, CA
Jul-11 Greek Theatre Berkeley, CA
Jul-13 Red Butte Garden Salt Lake City, UT
Jul-14 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
Jul-16 Britt Pavilion Jacksonville, OR
Jul-17 Marymoor Amphitheatre Redmond, WA
Jul-18 McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater Troutdale, OR
Jul-19 McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater Troutdale, OR
Jul-26 Squaw Velley Ski Resort Olympic Valley, CA
Aug-06 Eastnor Castle Ledbury, UK
Aug-07 Lollapalooza – Grant Park Chicago, IL
Aug-07 Eastnor Castle Ledbury, UK
Aug-08 Eastnor Castle Ledbury, UK
Aug-08 Lollapalooza – Grant Park Chicago, IL
Aug-09 Eastnor Castle Ledbury, UK
Aug-14 Haldern Pop Festival Haldern, DE
Aug-15 Haldern Pop Festival Haldern, DE
Aug-21 Glanusk Park Powys, UK
Aug-22 Glanusk Park Powys, UK
Aug-23 Glanusk Park Powys, UK
Oct-02 Austin City Limits Festival Austin, TX
