Uh oh, I think I’m having déjà vu. Another progressive, experimental group from the States to get my head around. After trying to desperately find meaning in Excepters’ musings, shall we call it; I now come across Bird Show Band. Which, having recently found out is actually quite a literal meaning, due to the fact that one member is a painter. He paints a bird representing each song, as they play, still with me? Well apparently after they have performed, the audience have the chance to buy one of these paintings for cheap! Quite a cool and original idea but what’s the music like exactly?

Well to brief you on them quickly, friends CJ Miller and Ian Peters started out as a guitar/drums two-piece called Great Lakes in 1999. They then eventually progressed to creating Bird Show in 2002, experimenting their indie, instrumental tunes in the studio. After realising that the group needed expanding, they brought in Andy Clawson on bass/guitar to not only add to the dynamics of the group, but to also help shape the vision of the bands’ bird vision / idea as a whole. The final piece of the bird puzzle, was recruiting artist friend Curtis Poortinga to show off his painting skills, in which he fully embraced the concept and therefore became a full time member.

Ok, so now the music. Well at first listen, I could hear jazz influences, electronic hints, indie drum fills and not surprisingly, bird-like synth sounds. And so it’s easy to match this to their MySpace inspiration list of Miles Davis, The Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth for example. However they also mention the sea and cake, ahem. Five minutes into ‘Quintet One’ and I really fancied some cake, just for something else to do. It’s a very long time to be listening to constant irregular drum rhythms, splattered electro notes and erratic double bass licks. Experimental? Oh, yes.


'BSB Synthesizer Solo’ gives you just that. Synth, synth and some more synth, OK, next. ‘Quintet Two, Three and Four’ follow the same random pattern of lengthy interweaving drum and double bass fills and electro sample flourishes. You can probably see where this is heading, so to round it off, I’m afraid I’m not convinced. My attention span is weak at the best of times, but this really didn’t pull me in and shake me by the collar. However I have to give them credit for the fascinating live bird painting idea. I’m sure this is cool to watch and with some of the proceeds of the sold artwork going to various wildlife organizations, I can’t argue with that. Musically? Sorry guys, I’m already reaching for the paracetamol to douse my growing headache.