Of Beasts, Men and...Bird

By Lizz Kannenberg in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 6, 2009 6:45PM

It may be another couple of weeks before you can lay your hot little hands on an artwork copy of Andrew Bird's Noble Beast, but the Bird Herd wants you to be plenty familiar with what our hometown whistle blower has been up to before then. Building on an already carefully-calculated career that hit a high point when Bird drew 13,000 people to a free show at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion in September (and incited a sweaty dance riot and some bra-throwing), the diminutive troubadour finally seems poised to go from cult hero to bona fide pop star. His decidedly un-meteoric rise was recently chronicled in the New York Times and the slight, angular 35-year-old will soon loop, lull and pluck the shit out of David Letterman's stage.

In case you are, like us, wondering what all the new found fuss is about (since 2005's Mysterious Production of Eggs would be hard to top, for reals, right?), Noble Beast is currently streaming in its entirety on NPR's website , and from what we've heard there and at the secret Hideout and Ronny's shows last month, this is a Beast to be reckoned with. First single and leadoff track "Oh No" is not the powerhouse that Eggs' "Fake Palindromes" may have been, but it just may be more mature and more accessible in its '60s SoCal pop lilts and limerick-based lyrical structure.

NPR stream not enough? Head over to AB's site to listen to an entire LP of bonus instrumentals that will be included with the deluxe edition of Noble Beast.

Still have a Bird burn in your chest? Dying to know more about how this Beast was born? Click back over to NPR's music site this Thursday at noon Chicago time for a live Web chat with the man himself.