It has taken Chicago native Andrew Bird nearly five years to release Are You Serious? ( on Loma Vista Records ), his first full-length of new music in as many years.
It is not like he fell off the face of the earth, being that his annual Gezelligheid concerts are a yuletide event and he dropped a collection of Handsome Family covers ( Things are Really Great Here, Sort of..., on Wegawam Records ) as well as scored the FX series Baskets. None of this reveals where Bird's state of mind really is, but the new album and his concert at The Pritzker Pavilion on Sept. 7 dropped some big clues.
The new CD seems to be a gentle rebuke for Bird's tendency for cuteness and wordy dexterity, something detractors have nagged him on for years. The lightest moments on the album are the mildly smirking title track and the duet "Left Handed Kisses," with Fiona Apple. If Are You Serious? seems to be straight-faced, it clearly reaches for something with more gravity than a cover of "It's Not Easy Being Green" that Bird has played in concert.
His Sept. 7 show was abetted by a extravagant lighting ( unexpected ) and agreeable weather, and combined the grandeur of opera with the ethereal beauty of a church choir in full flight. The nights only "cute" touch came with Bird's reading of "A Nervous Tic of the Head to the Left," with him constantly demonstrating said tic. After admonishing himself half-jokingly with "Are You Serious?" he aimed his sights toward heaven and let himself create magic.
The new "Truth Lies Low," "Puma" and "Roma Fades" seemed designed to overwhelm and between Bird's soaring voice and the lighting they clearly hit the mark. "Left Handed Kisses," this time performed with opener Margo Price, was bouncy and tart while oldies like "Effigy," "Heretics," "Plasticities," and "Scythian Empires" filled out the set list. Having been featured in a video for the anti-gun initiative Everytown, "Pulaski At Night" was particularly touching.
Looking fit and playful, Bird was lithe and wiry and he clearly loved being in front of his hometown audience. Waving his bow like an extended magic wand and riffing on his violin like a Stratocaster, he obviously delighted in making it scream and shriek as well as mesmerizing a rapt audience who wanted to be entertained.
If Bird seems to be taking his indie-rock to heaven, it is hard to tell where noise rockers Evasive Backflip are headed with the just released Turbo Chili Children ( on bandcamp ). The CD seems to be about something and I can't figure what, but it certainly is not about children or chili.
The band ( frontman/guitartist/bassist Jamarcus Drake, guitarist Josh Huggins, and drummer Ben Karas ) has won a loyal following for whipping out avuncular anti-pop full of abrupt chord and tempo changes, oddball percussion and unexpected melodic detours. The band clearly delights in making abstract music and they have sass and drive to go with it. Evasive Backflip also has a warped sense of humor, with Drake crooning through a wall of hiss bundles of absurdity and an X-rated kiss-off. On "This Face isn't Going to Sit on Itself," there's the line "I'm hung like a noose," which sounds like something a Navy recruit fresh out of high school would say to a hooker on his first shore leave. Later in the same song, Drake sings, "Such a big gun ... makes my p*ssy wet," and it is impossible to imagine him singing that without a leer on his face.
If Turbo Chili Children takes some effort in getting into as a mental state ( blue and demented lyrics set to jagged art rock? ), that certainly does not imply that it's not a lot of fun. "Twubble at Mystewy Beash" is as goofy as its title suggests and comes with a snaking interplay of intertwined guitars that is both articulate and stunning. The kicker is "Tony Two Tone and the Two Ton Tamale," which rolls out on a bed of buffed polyrhythms with Drake floating through it like a diaphanous spirit trapped in a bottle.
If the CD seems off-putting on just a listen, seeing Evasive Backflip in action at The Empty Bottle Aug. 29 was an entirely different trip. Sporting a double neck bass and guitar, Drake played the host and fool by bombarding the audience with of feedback and jokes. Huggins anchored Drake's flights by playing his guitar like a percussive instrument while Karas seemed to enjoy being the wild card in the bunch with the sudden tempo and tone changes. Who said art had to be pretentious?
