Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk at the Cakeshop 9-19-09

Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk played the Cakeshop this Saturday, the middle show that night and ended up going on around 9:30. I only heard the one song off the split single and I wanted to go into it expecting nothing and be surprised. I was.

Suitcases of pedals were daisy chained together and sampler boxes blinked as they started with slow building notes of tremolo guitar of almost feedback, fading in and out. The falsetto vocals by the drummer (don't ask me names, I looked everywhere), have all kind of effects on them. I love that they are able to keep this all together, playing this kind of improvised ever changing live guitar meddling is never easy, you can't find the tone you usually use...it forces a lot of weird accidents, and Baby Birds were rolling with the punches...you couldn't see it.

At different times bass guy would abandon it and add to the already pounding drums with a shared tom that was passed around from one side of the stage to the other, and that's when the whole 'scape takes a drum circle turn a la Foot Village, which is a great contrast to the swirling shoegaze wall that's created. The rhythm works under the ambient haze, keeping up the pace of everything. Like Mogwai without a melody, the highs and lows are created through the range of drumming created. The frantic cymbal smashing of the track going nuts to a shower of quiet unmic'ed rim shot clicks, the drums are running the show, really dictating the range of emotion.


It was one long performance, feedback leading into the next strained melody. The guitar completely covered in duct tape was a nice touch, I get the feeling there's a little bit of Sonic Youthish instrument preparing going on... I think guitars were switched a couple times. The tunings, the way they string it. It's a commitment to make that guitar be that particular sound, it's life is pretty much over for anything else once you do that. I can't really get enough of anything bordering on instrumental, loud/quiet, noise with a touch of catchy, so this is completely perfect. One single isn't enough, tell me this is expanding to two sides of a record, no breaks?
Please?


Mushpot Records/Promo graciously caught my review of their single and offered up this MP3 'Train Fuzz (real good food)' to download and listen away.