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The Dirty Birds

About Me


Catchy melodies meet rapturous lead guitar, country twang and jazz sensibilities in this New York-based quartet. Though rooted in the singer-songwriter tradition, the Dirty Birds are essentially a rock band in the 1960s mold of endless experimentation and musical freedom—the result is an occasionally retro sound, colored by modern pop and indie-rock such as Fiona Apple, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Wilco.
Forever pigeonhole-phobic, the Dirty Birds will peck away at anything until they make it their own, incorporating elements of pop, soul, folk & country, psychedelia and Brazilian music into their sound. Having left their home base of Ann Arbor, MI for Brooklyn, NY with a strong collection of songs and an energetic, jazz-rock live show, the Dirty Birds have the potential to leave an iconic mark on the American soundscape.
"How the Cause Became the Cure meanders between toe-tapping, high-energy tunes and melodic, crooning orchestral numbers...However strictly midwestern The Dirty Birds’ beginnings may be, their music molds together all sorts of genres — including jazz, pop, folk and rock — into a wonderfully rich sound, deeply layered but simultaneously subtle...Intricate and delicate guitar and keyboard melodies deftly intertwine with the string orchestration, then suddenly erupt into heart-wrenching and soulful crescendos. Such explosions are always expertly placed — the band lures listeners into a state of anticipation and flips the switch at the optimal moment to release a great deal of musical tension...The album not only flourishes in production quality, but also in lyrical and musical terms — by blending so many genres, the album becomes virtually genre-less."
- The Michigan Daily
"Thick, orchestral, cinematic, all those grand adjectives apply..."
-Jeff Milo, Deep Cutz
The Dirty Birds "have concocted an album...that manages to stay simple enough to digest and enjoy on a surface level. But it’s really served best if you let your ears and your mind delve deeper."
-Greg Brown, G's Albums
The album was recorded at Big Sky Recording in Ann Arbor, and Smart Studios in Madison, WI. The album was co-produced by recording engineer Tomek Miernowski, and mastered by Jim DeMain (Andrew Bird, Frank Black).
Live at Ella Lounge NYC 2/5/10 - "What I Realized"
Live at Matchless in Brooklyn 11/17/09 - "Just As Blue"

Live at Crash Mansion 3/27/10 - "Distant Lover" (M. Gaye)
Live at National Underground 2/22/10 - "O Leãozinho" (Caetano Veloso)
Live on WCBN 2/11/09 - "Miserable Turn of Events"
Check out our YouTube channel

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 08/09/2006
Band Website: http://www.thedirtybirds.com
Band Members:
Jared Saltiel - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard
Greg Hornby - Lead Guitar
David Koenig - Bass
Dustin Kaufman - Drums

How the Cause Became the Cure features the following talented musicians:

Dave Scalia, Charlene Kaye, Tomek Miernowski, Glenn Tucker, Scott Copeland, Mark Dover, Jimmy O’Connell, Elise Shoppe, Andrea Moreno-Beals, Alicia Doudna, Sheryl Hwangbo, Tom Carter, Hayden Gandolfi, Emily Graber, Aubrey Roper and Steve Dannemiller.
Influences: The songs:

Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Caetano Veloso, Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, Nina Nastasia, Ryan Adams, Jeff Buckley, Marvin Gaye, Tom Jobim, Lennon/McCartney

The sound:

All of the above artists, the Cardigans, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Smashing Pumpkins, Jon Brion, Wilco, Prince, Blur, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Aimee Mann, the Verve, Miles Davis, Milton Nascimento, J. Gilberto, Cazuza, Rita Lee, Elvis Presley, Elliott Smith, Ennio Morricone, Tchaikovsky, Juana Molina, M. Ward, Stevie Wonder, Laura Nyro, Serge Gainsbourg

Sounds Like: Rock'n'roll, Blues/Jazz, Folk/Country, 60s Pop, Soul/Motown, Psychedelia, 90s Alternative, Britpop, Tropicália/MPB in a blender.

In other words, music your parents listened to in college plus the weird South American stuff they were never cool enough to discover.
Record Label: ........
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

TOUR / E.P. / EXISTENTIAL CRISIS

Legions!  Yo!  It's been a while!A lot of things have happened since I last wrote, but almost none of these things have anything to do with this band.  So I'll try to keep it focused.  Let's start wit...
Posted by on Wed, 05 May 2010 23:57:00 GMT

Fun with Dispassionate Narration / Mascot

....Yo! Legions! March 21st, 2010 will be remembered as the night (almost all of the Democrats in) the House came together to pass the first comprehensive health care reform in our nation's history, f...
Posted by on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Fandorin Mysteries / Numerical Talking Points

Sup Legions,So my brother turned me on to this extremely extreme series of Russian mystery novels by Boris Akunin (that's a pen name)...they follow the adventures of a sleuth named Erast Petrovich Fan...
Posted by on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:23:00 GMT

Optimistic Rant

Yo Legions,Hope you're having a nice night.  I find myself sleepless and wired, making millions of plans in my head.  This happens about once every week and a half...Thanks to everybody who came out t...
Posted by on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:22:00 GMT

FREE SHOW at CRASH MANSION 1/12

Sup legions.Happy New Year!!!Welcome to a new decade.  We plan on culturally dominating this era of popular American music.  Surely the 10's will go down as the Dirty Decade.  In all seriousness, thou...
Posted by on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:06:00 GMT

Trash Bar / Michigan Daily Review

Legions,Thanksgiving has passed and, after a week of supreme gluttony interspersed with New York subway scrambling, we're ready to get back on track.  We've got a gig at TRASH BAR in Williamsburg this...
Posted by on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:15:00 GMT

Moved to Matchless

Legions.Our first NY show was moved to Matchless in Greenpoint.  It will still be awesome.  We implore you to come out and see three Ann Arbor bands take over Brooklyn.We'll be playing almost all orig...
Posted by on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:52:00 GMT

G's Albums REVIEW

Full disclosure: Greg Brown is a good friend and a former Dirty Bird (in its high school incarnation).  Regardless, he's also a great writer and a man with distinguished opinions, whose praise we're p...
Posted by on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:08:00 GMT

Meet Dustin Kaufman

After a long, protracted struggle, involving many pleading phone calls and a few desperate Craigslist posts, the Dirty Birds have finally found the new drummer.  And we did not settle for less.  The n...
Posted by on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:36:00 GMT

iTunes / NEW YORK

It's official, the Dirty Birds are now in New York!  We're still getting settled, getting jobs, looking for gigs.  For now the most pressing concern is to get our shit set up in the practice space.  H...
Posted by on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:08:00 GMT