Yellowbirds
Yellowbirds Sam Cohen, AKA Yellowbirds, is a Texan living in New York. While the Texas of his teens may be the home of Enron, Dallas, Big Oil, and grey Houston Astros jerseys, he prefers to think of it as the home of Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, the Space Program, and orange Astros jerseys. It stands to reason, then, that the New York he resides in must be the mythical Empire City - the Rocky Mountains of Architecture, Epicenter of Modern Art, and Home of the Velvet Underground. Admittedly, there is no shortage of romanticism in this outlook. Indeed, there is none in this music. Even a song entitled 'Pulaski Bridge' (a pastoral daydream formed staring at the retractable bridge between Brooklyn and Queens from an apartment window) somehow seems to transport the listener 200 years in any direction, and the other songs only get more universal in scope. As a collection, the music is marked by unpredictable forms, natural imagery, and cowboy-esque melodies, cut with double-speed auto-harp glissandos, glowing backwards pedal steel and echo guitars that harken to the synth sequenced soundtracks of late seventies educational films. It is hard to believe, in fact, that most of the "electronic" sounds in this music come from stringed instruments. These disparate elements coupled with a recording process that combines studio and home recordings of widely varying fidelity intentionally create the recorded effect of a sonic collage. While crafting these recordings can be something of an insular process, seeing Yellowbirds Live is an experience memorable for it's raw spontaneity and bombast. The band, comprised of crack Brooklyn musicians, possess an energy that must be seen to be believed, especially in the moments when Cohen, who has been described as "...the most underrated guitarist in America today" (jambase.com) indulges in massive hollow-body solos that teeter on the edge of breath-taking beauty and structural meltdown. Sam is also a member of Apollo Sunshine, the Boston born psychedelic trio who have been performing since 2001 and have released three critically acclaimed albums, most recently 2008's Shall Noise Upon. Yellowbirds is his solo debut.