The Bird Man Cometh!

Thursday night saw Andrew Bird and homies Dosh and St. Vincent come to the Scala for a blistering night of whistling and mad skills. I totally recorded 'Fiery Crash' on my ridiculously inept Sony Ericsson so I could share a nice live mp3 from the night, but my phone ate the song and spat it god knows where. But never mind! Instead I am giving you the marvelous Armchairs. It's long, but stick it out till he sings "You didn't write you didn't call" - the shivers you will get are a total pay-off. Live, this song absolutely took my breath away. Dude can sing!

Andrew Bird - Armchairs



Now onto St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, session guitarist for bloggers favourite Sufjan Stevens amongst others. On record, S V creates swathes of layered sound, blending fractured beats and swirling melodies to create an almost ethereal sound-scape not totally dissimilar to dudes like Yeasayer. In person, she is completely different. We saw her stripped down (tragically only aurally) and accompanying herself with just a guitar and foot stamps, and is kinda reminiscent of Regina Spektor (Whom I LOVE!). I have to admit, I prefer this experience as her incredible musicianship really only shines when given a blank canvas against which to unfurl. She plays the guitar like a freakin' piano, I mean, c'mon!! After grabbing the following mp3 you really need to check out her MySpace and listen to 'Marry Me'. It's sublime.

St. Vincent - Paris is Burning