Fake Palindromes

Fake Palindromes by Andrew Bird


I love this song. Love this song. Love Love Love Love this song. From the intro with the winding violin and the distant vocal nearly screaming "Ohhhhhh ohhhh oh", to the steady verse that builds and builds, back to that winding violin, then the beat and Bird's vocals build to this when it all comes crashing together:
And she says I like long walks and sci-fi movies
If you're six foot tall and east coast bred
Some lonely night we can get together
And I'm gonna tie your wrists with leather
And drill a tiny hole into your head

According to Last FM, over the last two and half years I've listened to this song more than any other song. Something like 200 times, though it's probably higher. And I never ever get sick of it. From the image of my dewy-eyed Disney bride, to the thoughts of formaldehyde and fratricide... and then that woman. Who is this woman? And why haven't I met her? Why does she sound so interesting, so perfect, so troublesome—like someone you sholdn't be involved with but can't help it because you want to know where she got that bruise? I'd love it if she said to me that she liked long walks and sci-fi movies. I'd quickly tell her that I am six feet tall and while from the Midwest, I've done my time out east. And hopefully we'd go back and she'd drill that tiny hole in my head.

Dark Matter

Dark Matter by Andrew Bird

As the song builds from the very beginning, with the whistling and big electric guitar, I get happy.

Memories are restricted to just a few random times walking around Chicago whistling the song. It's a good summer song, something that maybe pops into your head as you leave some place that made you feel good. It's one of those type songs - subtle, yet big. Something you hear when you leave... something that would play at the very end of a movie.

Watch it live:

Tables and Chairs

Tables and Chairs by Andrew Bird

Bird's Mysterious Production of Eggs is one of my favorite albums of all time... just song after song of great music. This offering comes near the end of the album. It's pretty, his voice soars and it has this nice little beat. But what I really love, is in the middle of the song when Bird lyrically, let's it fly. Some how he makes the end of the world sound so romantic. I know I wouldn't mind falling for someone in financial ruin... it'd be sort of fun. An adventure, me an a love, traveling though the world with dancing bears, bands, and no money.

I know we're gonna meet someday in the crumbled financial institutions of this land
There will be tables and chairs
Pony rides and dancing bears
There'll even be a band
'cause listen after the fall there'll be no more countries
No currencies at all
We're gonna live on our wits
Throw away survival kits
Trade butterfly knives for adderal
And that's not all
Woah!
There will be snacks, there will
There will be snacks!

Listen Live!

And a small studio clip:

Andrew Bird – Tables and Chairs

11:11

11:11 by Andrew Bird

This song will forever be tied to the Lou, for better or for worse. It's a long story, but I can shorten it for the blog. I was dating the Lou and really liked her. She moved off to New Haven and I moved back to DC. So we were doing the long distance thing for a few months, she came down to visit me, I went up to visit her and so on. At the time I had very little going for me at the time - for two months I was unemployed. I was unsure about everything in life. I was scared to do much of anything. I had little clue of what I really wanted to do. In a way, the Lou was all I had. And she made me happy. I enjoyed visiting her and I fell for New Haven in the process and planned on going back up there in October over Columbus Day. In my mind, everything was fine and dandy. In reality, things were not. And the moment I got off the train on that fine Friday afternoon in New Haven, I knew something was up. We had an awkward lunch. We went back to her place. She broke up with me*. I was now faced with a problem... do I stay or do I go? We had planned on going up to Boston to see a BC football game. I couldn't go anywhere that night since it was going to be tough to get a train back to DC (plus I was going to try and give it once last shot, what the hell right?). So the Lou says, yeah stick around for the weekend. I say fine. On Saturday, we get up and since it's raining like the end of the world, we end up going to her home parents house in Farmington, CT. We spent that Saturday doing pretty much everything broken up couples do not do, in other words acting like a couple. This was probably not a good idea in the long run, but that's life. Sunday, we go back to New Haven, and Monday is my train back to DC. But in the process of all this driving, we listened to Andrew Bird a good five or six times. I am really enjoying him and 11:11 especially. So right before I leave for DC, the Lou gives me a CD of Andrew Bird's Swimming Hour. Of course, 11:11 became the song of that late fall of 2005. I listened to it all the time while I sat around doing nothing but watching Gilmore Girls reruns. I got a temp job, and eventually I would listen to it walking to and from the King Street Metro... singing along as I danced (figuratively) down Cameroon Ave. Wow... okay, there's also memories of sitting a top the hill that surrounds New Haven, looking out upon the town, and thoughts of Gilmore Girls, and milk... I love this song, even if the memory is pretty bittersweet (as far as the Lou... we pretty much never talked again after that weekend and needless to say it took me a few months to get over her; what a weird break up, oh well).

Listen:

Listen whole song now!
Andrew Bird "The Swimming Hour"— 11-11

*[NOTE: The White Sox were also playing the Red Sox as this was happening, but I won't get into that].