Bird Names profile picture

Bird Names

words are the wheels on this train

About Me

the BIRD NAMES have played pop music since the early mid-2000s. they are an ideological and scientistic band. not counting ghosts (eleanor? liam? naomi? eric?) the players are: albert schatz, nora brank, david lineal, colin hartz, & phelan lavelle.

For Collaboration & Booking: inquire within or birdnames-AT-gmail.com.

please see as well Unsound's Bird Names page .

"Damnation" video by Brian Hank Henry & Rich Salamander

the Bird Names on Chic-a-Go-Go.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 4/5/2005
Band Website: UnsoundRecords.com
Influences: ..the BIRD NAMES have a deep and inscrutable discography of increasingly available music, including these albums:

Open Relationship (Unsound, '08)

Wooden Lake Sexual Diner (Unsound Records, '07)
"undomesticated, raucous, urgent, and alien like the 20s and 30s stuff on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music"
-- Chicago Reader

" . . . strewn through unyielding carnival rides, doused in moonshine and baked through and through . . . confusingly endearing."
-- audiversity.com

". . . like a fever dream."
-- onion a/v club

"...simple and direct and unabashedly celebratory . . . the sound of a singing-telegram lullaby as heard through the reach of 5-mile string-phone."
-- gapers block

"will satisfy your inner freak . . . a single piece of music that exists in the shadows but often strikes out with whimsy"
-- Daily Herald

"top 5 of 2007"
-- dan deacon

On Opaque Things (Pecan Crazy, '06)
"These beguiling songs sound snatched from a dream . . . childlike and terrifying . . . Surreal pop experiments [that] gleefully break paradigms and create pleasure."
-- Daily Herald

"2nd best album of 2006"
-- Jackin' Pop Critics Poll

"the best show I've ever been to . . . incredibly great"
-- Popsheep.com

Bird Names / Killer Whales 7" split (Do the Math, '06)

Fantic Yard (Heavy Medley, '05)
"simply a long, 18-track acid trip."
-- Encore Magazine

"I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that it was recorded in a men's room stall at the United Center . . . [O]ne of the brightest products of Chicago's art-damage scene in some time"
-- Chicago Reader

Sounds Like: the chordettes
Record Label: unsound, pecan crazy, do the math, heavy medley
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

to saddle

it was surreal and fun to play at millenium park yesterday: it sounded studio manicured on stage. the show was recorded fancily audio-visually and will eventually appear on pitchfork.tv. even though i...
Posted by Bird Names on Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:54:00 PST

west coast tour help, anyone?

hi friends,bird names would love your help filling out our summer tour west. if you can offer the names of good bands, cool venues, sympathetic friends, or use of your living room in these places, it ...
Posted by Bird Names on Tue, 27 May 2008 03:21:00 PST

names in pictures

phelan and jason made a pretty movie to the names' "regretting our fathers." chicago city goes just like it shows. ...
Posted by Bird Names on Fri, 16 May 2008 05:01:00 PST

with hat in hand

ok, you dudes are over it BUT : thanks for those mmMM shows last weekend. seems like every friend we have was there, dancing weirdly, blissing, being drunk. the vibration was right. it was p...
Posted by Bird Names on Thu, 01 May 2008 02:09:00 PST

record release weekend

a passover of the mind! two shows because we want it! a bird names better than ever before for the ASTOUNDING white arts of PHELAN and MANDY! this weekend only at ronny's bar! FRIDAY April 25ROLLIN H...
Posted by Bird Names on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:21:00 PST

west coast tour, white jazz

* april 25+26: bird names will celebrate the release of our new album OPEN RELATIONSHIP in chicago with a ronnysdency at ronny’s bar. yeeeeeeeh. there will be: gleeful feeling, music, webby deli...
Posted by Bird Names on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:58:00 PST

the people of the east

BIRD NAMES returned. dreams from our home life go back to animate us, and we smile to those people around we love, and treat familiar things in affirming ways.when we arrived east, nora said to me: "p...
Posted by Bird Names on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:04:00 PST

tour, my lunch

hey y'all,we're going on tour east soon and getting all up about it. given SHIFTLESS FLUX i offer you our itinerary for your minutes::thu feb 21 -- rochester, nyfri  feb 22 -- boston, masat feb 2...
Posted by Bird Names on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:51:00 PST

east is east and west is west

thanks to the good hearts and artfulness of those folk along my recent midwest road. its strange how general good humor, soulful design, and kindness are in what usually seems a rotted over world. i w...
Posted by Bird Names on Sun, 30 Dec 2007 11:18:00 PST

commerce, commodities

hello friends,a few crystally nugs:1). the bird names album WOODEN LAKE SEXUAL DINER of recent vintage is available for purchase on itunes. do you buy music on itunes? i don't know.2). we're finishing...
Posted by Bird Names on Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:06:00 PST