You are viewing this article in the AnnArbor.com archives. For the latest breaking news and updates in Ann Arbor and the surrounding area, see MLive.com/ann-arbor
Posted on Tue, Jun 14, 2011 : 9:57 a.m.

Andrew Bird's unique sounds will kick off Ann Arbor Summer Festival main-stage season

By Kevin Ransom

061611_SPOTCOVER.jpg

Andrew Bird is the first event in this year's Ann Arbor Summer Festival main-stage season.

If Andrew Bird fans found his 2009 album, “Noble Beast,” to be charmingly eccentric, then they likely thought that Bird upped the eccentricity ante on his 2010 follow-up, “Useless Creatures.”

What makes “Useless Creatures” even more unconventional is that it is, in Bird’s words, “an ambient experimental record”—and it’s all-instrumental.

It’s “not unlike some electronic dance music only with woody, grainy sounds rather than the perfect sine waves of a synthesizer,” Bird noted, accurately, in a statement that accompanied the disc’s release. “How to be minimal and repetitive without being insipid is the challenge.”

“Useless Creatures” indeed boasts an abstract looseness and energy that reflects Bird’s unpredictable live shows.

Actually, “Useless Creatures” had also been available as a “bonus” disc on the deluxe edition of “Noble Beast,” but since CD buyers were probably reluctant to lay out the extra cash for anything “deluxe” in ’09, in the wake of the Wall Street meltdown, the second disc didn’t reach nearly as many listeners until it was released on its own, a year later.

Bird performs at the Power Center on Saturday as the first main-stage offering of this year's Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

Bird’s primary instrument is the violin—he’s classically trained—and his live show is typically a synergy of folk, jazz, swing and classical styles. Bird also likes to whistle, both on recordings and on stage.

On some of his earlier albums, Bird’s sound had a chamber-folk quality, and some of that was evident on “Noble Beast” as well. But that disc also displayed Bird’s affinity for airier, more relaxed arrangements, with melodies that slowly revealed their charms. Those qualities made the disc his most accessible one up to that point, which also made it his “breakthrough” disc in terms of allowing his unique, unconventional music to transcend cult status and reach the broader pop audience.

Which brings us back to his general eccentricity: Bird has the ability to compose almost complete songs in his head —sometimes while driving or just walking down the street. And he describes himself as “the classic introvert”—which is generally not considered to be a plus for a man who earns his living by getting onstage and performing in front of live audiences.

PREVIEW

Andrew Bird

  • Who: Quirky artist who reached out beyond cult status in 2009 on the strength of his “Noble Beast” album that was released that year. With special guest Haley Bonar.
  • What: A unique synergy of orchestrated chamber-folk, jazz, Latin and classical styles. He typically creates a big sound by using tape loops of violin, guitar, voice and glockenspiel to craft textured, melodic hooks and grooves.
  • Where: Power Center, 121 Fletcher St.
  • When: Saturday, June 18, 8 p.m.
  • How much: $45, $40, $35, $30. Available online at www.annarborsummerfestival.org, by phone at 734-764-2538, or in person at the Michigan League Ticket Office, 911 North University Ave.
Bird has also made some remarks that prompted some to suspect he might have an obsessive-compulsive personality. A couple of years ago, he told Rolling Stone, for instance, that on his previous tours, he had to drink an espresso exactly 90 minutes before going on stage, and that he had to misspell specific words when he wrote out his set list—and that if he didn't he would “have a bad show.”

Fans of the late-1990s neo-swing craze will remember that Bird was a member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers when that group’s “Hell” was a hit single in 1997. He later left the Zippers and formed the jazz-inspired Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, which lasted until 2002.

That’s when Bird became a solo performer, opening for acts like Ani DiFranco and My Morning Jacket—and then heading out to the lobby after the show to staff his own merchandise table.

Those solo shows earned him a reputation as a versatile but offbeat performer—he mixed violin, guitar, glockenspiel and a tape-loop machine. His live shows are generally structured along those lines, as he generates a fairly big sound by looping and layering the violin, guitar, voice and glockenspiel, using the loops to craft textured, melodic hooks and grooves. And each show is unique: Bird rarely performs a song onstage the same way it sounds on the album.

It was on his 2003 album, “Weather System,” that he located what has become his signature sound—that orchestrated chamber-folk that also draws on jazz, Latin and classical touches—with a few post-punk, arty / ambient touches that evoked comparisons to Radiohead.

Bird has released 11 albums to date, and last year, Amazon.com named Bird’s 2005 disc, “Mysterious Production of Eggs,” as one of the "100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time."

One area Bird fan is Sandi Lopez of Superior Township.

“I think he’s an awesomely talented musician, with an interesting style,” says Lopez, who, until now, has only seen Bird’s live performances on “Austin City Limits” and YouTube, and is very enthused about seeing him live for the first time at the Summer Fest show.

“I like the way his music flows, his whistling, and the way he plays his violin—both as it is usually played, and the way he plays it like a guitar,” says Lopez. “His songs are smooth to listen to, even when his lyrics are more assertive. And he always has an extremely talented group of back-up musicians, so the overall quality is outstanding. He is unusual, and he should be much more well-known. His music just hits a special spot in me.”

Andrew Bird performs "Anonanimal" in Minneapolis:

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com