"Imagine Radiohead with a fiddle and a hankering to play the blues." - Mike Ross, the Edmonton Sun
Andrew Bird is a musician from Chicago who has played with the Squirrel Nut Zippers; this is his band. He plays an unorthodox fiddle while singing darker yet just as clever lyrics as the Zippers (all while wearing his trademark scarf). Beware of obviously-someone's-girlfriend Nora although she does do a fine robot dance.
Discography:
Released on Rykodisk.
I first heard them at Call the Office in London, Ontario opening for The New Pornographers. It's a good thing the Pornographers were on top of their game or Bowl of Fire would have completely stolen the show. Even so, they ran out of CDs first -- before I could buy one!
Disappointed, I left with nothing more than a "AB BoF" sticker determined to find a record in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, BoF did not receive a wide enough release to hit my rural community so I had to wait until The Swimming Hour.
The week it hit stores I was in the massive HMV and Sam the Record Mans in Toronto looking for it. HMV was shooting blanks, having nothing but an empty section in "Jazz". In Sam, the clerk and I wandered aimlessly, checking "Bird, Andrew"; "Bowl of Fire"; and even "Squirrel Nut Zippers" before discovering the huge rack right by the door...