Some word of BIRD NAMES SINGS THE BROWNS:
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Tiny Mix Tapes:
Sings The Browns is one of those albums you’d expect to get
lost underneath the hyper-creativity and hyper-eccentricities of its
makers. Much of Bird Names’ previous output suffers from this problem,
namely by not successfully harnessing the myriad of sound-aspects
whirring through the band members’ minds and cannibalizing each other
on the recordings. To the listener, this problem presents itself as
frustration; the restlessness of the music translates into annoyance.
With this new album, though, the band has found a way to manage the
creative frenzy and construct a totality from disparate sound sources
without sacrificing a single drop of energy and insanity. The
consequence, for the listener who finds this foundation within the
madness, is joy.
Sings The Browns is a motherfucker of a percussive album. Not
in the Neil Peart sense, but in the sense known by any home-recorder
who has acquired a healthy collection of egg shakers, banged on toilet
bowls with forks, and carried home an old, mangled bass drum from a
yard sale. From the first second of “Nature’s Over” to the end of the
album, the beat drives the whole, constantly switching directions to
match the idiosyncrasies of the many complicated transitions. The close
listener will find herself unable to resist the pleasure when the extra
shaker kicks in around the one-minute mark of “Defined Stijls.” On
“Live Longer Than We Want To,” the percussion goes off on a high-speed
Morricone-fueled rant while perfectly accompanying an "Eastern" guitar
line. Guitars play a prominent role on the album, from the pleasantly
sloppy riffs and lead phrases that dance around each other on “Defined
Stijls” to what sounds almost like a bloody guitar-as-knife-fight on
“Scandanavia.” There must be at least four guitars on “People Should
Get More Aware,” battling it out in a cracked-up, Thin Lizzy style. The
opening guitar line on “Days Elevated” is one of the nastiest riffs to
blast out from a garage in years.
There are rich melodies patiently lurking within all this chaos. A
lovely phrase eventually climbs out from the noise on “Natural Weeds,”
transforming it into a playful and psyched-out organ waltz. “Oh,
Narcotopic Fantasy” floats the listener up, just like it promises, on
some sort of horn-cloud above the disorder for a moment of
spiritual-dope-bliss. The melody on “I Had A Girl” breezes alongside
the horns and flute, and the latter makes a magical appearance on the
closing track, momentarily turning it into an AM-funk gem. At times,
the vocals are indecipherable, usually drenched in thin,
non-shitty-fuzz, and always amped up and harmonically captivating,
playing nicely with the shifting structures of the songs. Somehow it
all manages to come together to form one of the most well-crafted,
unique, and far-out pop albums in recent years. It may require a bit of
patience and curiosity at first, but the brave ear will be well
rewarded by the creative assault that Bird Names so confidently deliver.
(Elliot Sharp)
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Treble Magazine:
I'm convinced there's a portal to outer space located in one of
Chicago's darkest, deepest corners. I can't prove it, and my
astrophysical theories are a bit fuzzy, to say the least, but I can't
think of any better explanation for the abundance of off-the-wall,
experimental pop to have been born within the Windy City. From
Califone's space blues to Tortoise's cut-and-paste, anything goes
fusion, there's a strong undercurrent of otherworldly sounds blowing
between L-train stops. And were this hypothetical tear in the fabric of
existence to actually exist in Chicago, as I presume it does, it would
support my theory that Bird Names does not, in fact, come from
Illinois, but from Mars.
Bird Names, who have quietly (though not literally) released a
series of full-length albums in the past ten years, most certainly
sound like some kind of wacky, alien rock band on their fifth album, Sings the Browns.
They bang and clatter and hoot and howl, like Beefheart and Can and Os
Mutantes shot through cannons into cockfighting matches. It's bizarre
and uproarious, disorienting and just plain out there. But my god, is it fantastic.
There's a slightly detuned jangle to Bird Names' melodies, a distorted and slightly off,
but no less melodic sound that informs their fun, slightly tropical
sounding junkyard jam sessions. "Nature's Over" is, in essence, a
simple garage rock song, and a fairly catchy one at that, with joyous
vocal harmonies and a rhythm designed to provoke wriggling and
writhing. "Live Longer Than We Want To" is a lo-fi gallop with uneasy
keyboard wobbles and group chanting that come to clash in a
delightfully dissonant manner. "Scandinavia" has a straightforward
groove that comes to a brief halt as Bird Names' members begin to bang
on shit during the verses, but the scratchy, dizzy rock continues all
the same. But it's not all homemade fuzzboxes and yelping matches; "Oh,
Narcotopic Fantasy" is dreamy and surreal with ambient flourishes,
while "I Had a Girl" is a folky, Animal Collective-like ballad. And
"People Should Get More Aware," though certainly still bizarre and
clamorous, has a catchy garage rock sensibility that's easy to love.
It is entirely possible that Bird Names merely comprises five
humans uninhibited by musical convention, but then again, maybe they
really are from Mars. No matter the origin, they're making some
exciting, oddball music that, even with some recognizable influences,
sounds very much unlike any pop music that any earthlings are capable
of producing.
(Jeff Terich)
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Viva Indie Rock:
Sings the Browns is the latest in a long line of great releases from Chicago's Bird Names.
Experimental at their core, Bird Names seems to draw their musical
compositions from bits and pieces of virtually every genre creating an
interesting sound that, when at its best, fits somewhere between the
easy-breezy sounds of early 70s folk-pop, mid 90s Japanese noise, and
children making music with their Fisher Price tool kit. Somewhere
around track 5 ("Natural Weeds"), this album takes off and never looks
back culminating in eight songs in a row that will dazzle you with
brilliance. My highlights include "Production", "I Had A Girl", and
"Taxicabs & Bicycles." Give this record a listen, it's well worth
your time.
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Rose Quartz:
It must be hard to throw billions of ZANY IDEAS into actual songs that
are good but Bird Names have gotten pretty good at this by the sounds
of their new Sings The Browns LP, it's totally frivolous with a vaguely
gentrified calamity, real mad dinner party sort of stuff though there's
some weird mountain/tower mystique in there too, but maybe that's
because sometimes they sound like a split between Taking Tiger Mountain
By Strategy and Ariel Pink (particularly “Days Elevated” from the new
album) but mostly they prefer to get lost in their own type of jumble,
built with super naff jangles (in a good way) and baffled young joy
beaming out everywhere.
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