I Luv Luv Birds Debuts Cleaning Lady Uprising

By Sarah Cobarrubias in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 21, 2010 4:40PM

Driven by an ambitious DIY disposition, I Luv Luv Birds is preparing to drop its fifth self-released, home-recorded album. The Chicago-based indie rock duo, comprised of vocalist Holly Prindle and multi-instrumentalist Marc Mozga, formed in 2005 and has released a recording every year since - except for 2009. So this year the duo is making up for the delay by releasing a lengthy 20-song album, Cleaning Lady Uprising (+DUB). And in celebration they'll be throwing a vinyl release show this Saturday at the Underground Lounge.

The new album is actually composed of two parts: Cleaning Lady Uprising, which is made up of ten new songs, and Cleaning Lady Dubrising, which is consists of dub versions of each of those new songs. Even without these dub tracks, the album is rife with reggae influence. For example, the opening track, “Backburner” starts with stark, mechanized drum beats but eases into a bass-heavy, reggae-driven rhythm. The duo also throws in its own interpretation of Paul Simon’s “Duncan” along with a dub version called “Dubcan.” The album’s strongest tracks, though, are its more experimental, most notably “Hook and Grid.” In what sounds like an exercise in sound collage, it combines Prindle’s lilting, bluesy vocals with blaring, muffled audio samples, melodica, drum machine, twangy guitar, and a whole mess of psychedelic sounds.

While Cleaning Lady Uprising’s official release date is scheduled for Oct. 27, it’s already available to the public. You can stream it for free or download it for $10 at I Luv Luv Birds’ Bandcamp. Aside from digital format, the album will only be available as a 12” vinyl that comes with homemade, silk-screened cover art and a free download of the album, and which will be available at the show. ILLB is known to give an intimate live performance and, in the cozy though somewhat dive bar-esque setting of the Underground Lounge, we expect Saturday night’s record release show will be well worth the $5 cover. Also playing are local one-man pop act The Tinycakes and moody indie singer James Apollo.

I Luv Luv Birds plays Saturday, October 23 at Underground Lounge, 952 W Newport, 10 p.m., $5, 21+