Live Review: Bowerbirds, Megafaun @ The Earl 8/17/09

[Phil Moore of Bowerbirds]

Wow, I really need to either get a better camera or stop taking show photography. This is verging on blasphemous.

For Atlanta Music Guide:

[Mark Paulson of Bowerbirds]

Live Review: Bowerbirds, Megafaun @ The Earl, August 17

If there had been wires running from the instruments Megafaun and Bowerbirds played onstage, from their faces and hands to the eyes and ears of everyone in the crowd, you would’ve seen bursts of green light, energy snapping and crackling along the lines all night. That’s how electric the show was. Both acts couldn’t have given more.

[Beth Tacular of Bowerbirds]

Megafaun, up first, just didn’t want to stay plugged in. Rather than pulling his banjo’s cord out gently, Phil Cook would rip free of his restraint and bound in one stride to the front of the stage or out into the audience. All three — Phil, his brother Brad, and drummer Joe Westerlund — walked around singing joyously among the crowd members. Standouts included “Kaufman’s Ballad,” “Columns” and “The Fade” as they meshed Americana with noisy electronic feedback and experimental sound collages. The last song of Megafaun’s all-too-short set was an unplugged number where they perched at the very front of the stage and sang straight to the audience, who watched them with awe-struck, upturned faces...[Read more]

[Megafaun]

Record Review: Bowerbirds - Upper Air

After writing a Paste Band of the Week on Bowerbirds at the re-release of Hymns For A Dark Horse last year (in which I got to interview Phil Moore), reviewing their follow-up LP was a bit of a challenge. For one thing, their style hadn't vastly changed on this sophomore effort. Many of the same elements were still there, to the point that it risked monotony. But once I listened enough, I got to experience the ways the band was growing. In the end, Upper Air is a satisfying, if not list-topping, effort from a band whose instinct for beauty is unparalleled.

For Stomp and Stammer:

Bowerbirds
Upper Air
[Dead Oceans]

“One morning you wake to find you are shackled to your bed/ And bound and gagged/ Oh my, what a predicament,” Phil Moore sings to begin “House of Diamonds,” the lead-off track of Bowerbirds’ sophomore LP. That certainly would be a predicament, but not to worry; “You were free/ You were already free,” the song reassures as Beth Tacular’s high, clear voice joins Moore’s. Two years after the self-release and one year after the re-release of the North Carolina trio’s first full-length Hymns for a Dark Horse, they’ve returned with Upper Air, an album consistent with their debut but that shows clear signs of evolution.

See, they were already free. Hymns betrayed the band’s organic, unshackled ways of writing, playing and living. (Moore and Tacular are a couple and lived in an Airstream trailer in the woods before they built their own log cabin.) The album explored almost exclusively themes of respect for nature, of living harmoniously with it and with the world as a whole. On Upper Air they still use pretty, harmonized vocal hooks and minimalist, acoustic instrumentation like accordion, piano and hand-held bass drum. They still pepper their folk songs with a darker, more intense gypsy number here or there; see “Beneath Your Tree.”...[Read more]

[MP3] Bowerbirds - "Crooked Lust"

Paste Band of the Week: Bowerbirds

Back from AthFest and attempting to re-organize. Phew. Pictures soon.

In the meantime, something fun!

When I awoke today, my very first Band of the Week piece greeted me from the Paste site. It's about N.C.'s staggeringly awesome trio Bowerbirds, in the wake of last week's reissue of their 2007 record Hymns For A Dark Horse on Dead Oceans. They're organic, sincere and wonderful musicians. I highly recommend them. And if you've got a moment read about 'em:


Paste: Band of the Week: Bowerbirds

Hometown: Raleigh, N.C.
Fun Fact: Guitarist/vocalist Phil Moore and multi-instrumentalist Beth Tacular have spent the last year building an eco-friendly house all by themselves to replace their AirStream trailer.
Why They’re Worth Watching: Moore, Tacular and multi-instrumentalist Mark Paulson create truly organic folk songs, full of haunting melodies and honest lyrics without layers of production.
For Fans Of: Phosphorescent, The Avett Brothers, The Mountain Goats, Bon Iver

People stare as Phil Moore, Beth Tacular and Mark Paulson stroll around a candy store in New York. Paulson’s tapping and thudding in rhythm on a bass drum he has strapped to him, Tacular is squeezing her accordion while she harmonizes sweetly and Moore is playing his acoustic guitar and singing about things like bur oaks and talons as he wanders. He turns to the side so he doesn’t whack the guitar’s neck on the corn-syrup-laden shelving. [Read more...]

[MP3] Bowerbirds - "Bur Oak"

"I've kind of ran out of goals"

While not job searching, lately I've been transcribing. My head is filled with the words of the Bowerbirds' Phil Moore and The Avett Brothers' Scott Avett. My own questions practically ring in my ears. I've been doing this so often, I've almost grown used to the way my voice sounds on digital recordings. They both speak of greater truths, of the way their music resonates in their own heads, and what it can reveal. That's why I enjoyed reading this interview so much (in spite of all its typos and poor copy-editing...):

Pitchforkmedia.com: Interview: Bon Iver

Granted, I would've read it anyway. It's about one of my very very favorite musicians. But I found the questions were well-thought-out, and that Justin Vernon just seems unimaginably down-to-earth for someone who makes such beautiful songs. I was particularly excited by his mention of his interest in scoring movies.

Says Vernon: 'I was very sad and very lonely and now my family's doing really well and I'm in love. What happens now? I've done things that I've never dreamt of doing and I've kind of ran out of goals. So I'm kind of super happy, waiting for some shoe to drop. Whether it's the cover of Rolling Stone or just like peter off and work in a field for the rest of my life or just die. I'm that on the crest of everyday, it's like, "Wow, this is amazing. I'm happy everyday."'

I have a very different kind of interview ahead of me in about 45 minutes. The job kind (soul-sucking as it may be...) Wish me luck.

FOAVOD: Bowerbirds - Bur Oak (Take-Away Show)

#90.1 - BOWERBIRDS - Bur Oak
by lablogotheque

Hymns For A Dark Horse re-releases June 19th on Dead Oceans. It's a good thing.

Things I adore right this second:

1. In my various research today, I found this picture:


It's a drawing by Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum, and I think it just may encapsulate everything I love about his songwriting. Yes?
I found it here. Don't think the site's been updated recently, but that's ok.

This may be one of the greatest things ever. It's the final track to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.



2. I also adore this song from the Bowerbirds.



They're touring with Phosphorescent, apparently. Related to my digging around for this article, I found the Band of the Week bit Paste did on Phosphorescent in October, when his album came out. It contained an interesting little tidbit, which is that The University of Georgia drumline probably had something to do with the writing of one of his tracks. (As a former member of the Redcoats, myself, that was certainly surprising to me.) Big dork, I know.

So, therefore, the next thing I adore is

3. "At Death, A Proclamation" by Phosphorescent, which is an excellent song in any case.


Phosphorescent with a tiger, apparently (from his MySpace):


4. Another thing I wrote up on the Paste website: Ladyhawk announces album release, tours Canada

As AWESOME as I feel like my writing is, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? So here, my friends, is Ladyhawk:


Wow. Look at the mugs on these guys. I'm in love.