No Bird Sing, Lookbook and Kill the Vultures

Local hip-hop/synth-pop triple-bill featuring three of the hottest acts in town, including No Bird Sing, whose new self-titled CD received rave reviews, Lookbook, who'll be releasing the vinyl version of 2009's Wild At Heart, and Kill the Vultures.

No Bird Sing formed in late summer of 2008, combining the talents of Eric Blair (stage name of Joe Horton, vocals/keys) and Robert Mulrennan (guitars/electronics) of Hyder Ali with Graham O'Brien (drummer/electronics) of Abzorbr.  The space that results from the guitar/drum/vocal lineup is largely influenced by artists like One Day as a Lion and the Black Keys, while lyrical influences are pulled from sources as diverse Mos Def, Aesop Rock, Kimya Dawson and John Lee Hooker. Like the band itself, the name No Bird Sing is a derivative of varied sources. The idea was sparked in Northern California by an ornithological paperback (called No Bird Sings) in a bookstore window, and later reinforced by John Keats:

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.

"Nearly everything about No Bird Sing is innovative and artistic. Just the musical makeup of the group is gutsy: essentially a hip-hop band built on the raw sounds of one guitar, one microphone, drums and little else. The lyrics are bold, too, influenced by everything from "A Clockwork Orange" to Muddy Waters to Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz." - Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

"No Bird Sing reject hip-hop clichés on groundbreaking debut… At their strongest, No Bird Sing show off three artists working their mediums to a tense high. The melancholic guitar riffs and sparse drumming of "Devil Trombones" weave a pulsing web around Horton's Clockwork Orange-inspired screed on the terrors of trying to be free.” - Carl Atiya Swanson, City Pages

Lookbook features veterans of the local electronic music scene Grant Cutler on beats, and Maggie Morrison on vocals, together making big waves as one of THE in bands in town.
"...Vocalist Maggie Morrison is pure magnetivity, Grant Cutler the iron ore, and their songs are a compass locked on North." -David Hansen
"...Morrison's voice is swathed in reverb, taking her away from the cool edge of her work with Digitata into something approaching gospel." - Steve McPherson

Kill the Vultures vocalist Crescent Moon and producer Anatomy produce songs that are nocturnal, urban soundscapes with an eye towards the industrial rust-belt cities of the upper mid-west. Crescent Moon’s vocals are predominantly crime narratives, spliced with social commentary. He drops surreal imagery and gritty truths in the same breath. Anatomy’s beats utilize a hard-boiled sample pallet, consisting of drums, upright bass, strings, and horns, filled out with live instrumentation.

Set times:

Kill the Vultures 8pm
Lookbook 9pm
No Bird Sing 10pm

Tickets are on sale now from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), Cedar outlets, and online at Ticketweb.
STANDING ROOM ONLY