On their first sustained collaboration since the Squirrel Nut Zippersâ
Bedlam Ballroom, Bird and Mathus draw from a range of old styles, primarily gospel, with the ease of old friends getting together for coffee.
The makers of
These 13 met at a pivotal moment in their lives. Back in 1994, Jimbo Mathusâ band the Squirrel Nut Zippers were just starting to put their stamp on a host of pre-rock musical styles, from jazz and swing to klezmer. They ran into Andrew Bird at the Black Mountain Music Festival, where he was playing fiddle, and eventually invited him to play on 1996âs
Hot, which went multi-platinum off the unlikely popularity of the single âHell,â a song that describes eternal damnation in gruesome detail. Although never a core member, Bird recorded and occasionally toured with the Zippers throughout the â90s, when they were misfiled under swing revival alongside groups with Daddy in their names. While Cherry Poppinâ Daddies and Big Bad
Louvin Brothers’ classic
Satan Is Real is a different matter altogether. Oakland alt-country act
Idiot Grins began the project three years ago, and what began as a throw-away project in between writing and recording original material quickly grew into something far more ambitious. Although the Louvins recorded a fair share of secular music as well, little of their music is ingrained in country music legend as this concept album with its infamous cover of the brothers posed among fire and brimstone and a massive plywood statue of the devil. Thus it is all the more interesting why the cover for