Saturday, April 17, 2010

further chronicles of the wind-up birds




Well, when all's said and regurgitated, and I no longer give a shit regards the lamentable state of the British music 'scene', something unexpectedly good drops through my virtual letterbox.


The Wind-Up Birds would appear to hail from Leeds. That alone is sufficient cause to trigger a fight or flight response; The Wind-Up Birds chose to squander the cost of a one-way ticket out of there on some instruments and dubious back-line equipment.

Tellingly, the group takes its name from a relatively obscure Japanese novel about a listless unemployed man whose cat flees the litter his life revolves around: "ねじまき鳥クロニクル " by Haruki Murakami.

I prefer the - aesthetically pleasing - jumble of kanji and katakana to its phonetic translation.

The Wind-Up Birds would sooner up sticks than write about designer drugs or rehab. Instead, their songs loiter in those monotonous urban spaces between car park and public house; dartboard and horsehoe bar.

So far as I am aware, they have resisted any temptation to eulogise bird-watching or casual ornithology. I could be mistaken.

Their single is officially released on Monday, 26th of April on Sturdy Records and Tapes. If you happen to be lurking in the vicinity of the Cockpit in Leeds on Saturday 24th where The Wind-Up Birds make a sheduled appearance, you may just bag yourself an advance copy.


THE WIND-UP BIRDS: THERE WON'T ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND from "Tyre Fire b/w There Won't Always Be An England" 45 (Sturdy Records) 2010 (UK)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...
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ib said...

That comment above ?

Manga birds, certainly. And most definitely some kind of a 'wind-up'.

Once again, our far-eastern pals demonstrate their unique slant on automated spam. Such as it is, I didn't quite have the heart to delete it.

Brushback said...

Delete the crap! Someone's getting like 50 cents each to post those links all day.

I guess this Wind-Up Birds is okay. Digging the "proto-punk" (VU, Pere Ubu) as of late, too.

ib said...

Well. As much as 50 cents ?

Maybe if we delete them all they'll withold even that. Then again...

Too late. I just zapped the f@ckin' thing.

I like the first part of this Wind-Up Birds offering better than its denouement. Reminds me a little of John Cooper Clarke. And I definitely empathize with the desire to bury a face or two in the bottle bin and generally tear up the place.

Like Stacy Keach in The Ninth Configuration.

A tad overstated or just plain optimistic towards the end, perhaps, but that's a strictly minor quibble.

@eloh said...

Interesting to say the least...it is a bit hard for me to understand some of the words. Nice.


I thought all that Oriental stuff was porn. 50 cents, that is a really "short time".

ib said...

@eloh:

the stuff I deleted was porn. Premium rate access, I imagine; a good deal more than 50 cents a minute to pop your nuts.

I'm glad you like The Wind-Up Birds.

The West Yorkshire vernacular is a bit like Manchester's, although there's a fair distance between the two boroughs.