300 Word Challenge

We were asked by an American magazine, Sup Magazine to write about ourselves in 300 words...This is what we came up with (give or take a couple of words)....

C-Bird:
Look but don’t touch unless prompted. Don’t think me vain because you’ve caught me reapplying my lipstick. Creating a false symmetry fascinates me. Catching your gaze in my pocket mirror didn’t unnerve me at all. Why don’t you just come over and say, ‘Hi’?


D-Bird is....
Sada Abe, Oscar Wilde, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Rainier Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, John Waters, Roman Polanski, Takashi Miike, Michel Gondry, Ancient Egypt, Strawberry Milk, Whiskey, Vintage clothes, hairspray, lots and lots of jewellery, messy hair, Doc Martens, thermal socks, Nirvana, Selfish Cunt, The Pixies, Mazzy Star, Sonic Youth, Hole, Roy Orbison, Kate Bush, The Smiths, Duane Eddy, Santo and Johnny, bass guitars, drums, coloured drum sticks, self denial, the (in)ability to love, Sunday mornings, writing about anguish but wanting happiness, drawing things I can‘t speak about, reading to improve my mental wealth, dreaming about the world and why I shouldn‘t be in it...


X-Bird:
Weapon of choice? A bass, a drum, a voice. X-Bird wishes she could dance for 24 hours in her stiletto heels, only compelled to move when she feels a beat has hit her sufficiently in the gut. She lives on a desert island with a tattered copy of Kenneth Anger’s ‘Hollywood Babylon’ for company. Here she dreams of an old time glamour only a chorus girl lulled onto a semen stained casting couch could hope for. X-Bird wholeheartedly believes beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that one day she will lose her heart amidst a sea of feedback and reverb.

Free Bird Remixes!

If anyone wants to do a remix...let me know!!
D-Bird
100remix.mp3
saintsremix.mp3
pastbetweenusremix.mp3

Words

As part of D-Bird's club night Decasia on the 28th January, Decasian friends old and new have been invited to submit pieces of work for the Decasia fanzine. It promises to be a great night with some exciting live acts on the bill! Also I've heard on the grape vine that D-Bird and Selfish Cunt have something exciting up their sleeve! Hope to see you there!

Below is a piece I have written for the zine.

X-Bird

'Good Morning'

Unnerved at the thought of anonymous ears listening to your conversations with God you decided to internalise your prayers similar to they way in which you kept your sins secret. You were sure that this way God would hear you in every fine detail. You wanted to be sure he would hear you perfectly, right to the very last silent syllable. No Chinese whispers. The message would be received first hand from your silent tongue. You can’t remember how long you spoke but suddenly overcome with the weight of your eyelids you surrendered yourself to sleep and allowed it to wash over you in waves.

You woke the next morning optimistic. The ease with which you flexed your toes suggested the heating finally worked. From your bed you saw the blue sky struggling through grey bloated clouds. You decided to have a lie in. Unaware of how much time had passed you drifted in and out of light sleep. Dreaming, the occasional nightmare seeping through. These episodes became fragmented memories of moments that never really happened. No clear beginning, no clear end. Your unconscious created the story but you couldn’t remember it. You remembered how this used to bother you. You used to think sleep burgled you of your imagination. You reminisced of those moments spent during uneventful days piecing together the previous night’s unconscious narratives like a jigsaw puzzle. They never did quite fit how you wanted them to so you dug deep into your imagination and thought up new narratives completely different to the fragmented memories of your dreams. Unable to understand your sleep any better you concluded that you were cheating your subconscious and in doing so, cheating yourself.

Shaking the last remnants of sleep out of your mind you willed yourself out of bed. As your toes grazed the carpet you watched as the blue sky in an act of defiance shattered opposing clouds into soft swirls of frozen crystals dispersing into the atmosphere.

Today is brand new.

An Exploration Of Local Heritage By A Bird Pump

It is a rather strange life at the moment...gigs and rehearsing have become 'work' and as for real 'work', I have none. It is in these moments, in these spaces in between where I feel like I am about to fall into an abyss of self-questioning and self hate. After much deliberation, I have decided that the only way out is to swim towards being constantly busy. After 9 hours in the studio on Sunday, I stayed up till 4am doing a few remixes of our songs. I am currently putting together a fanzine - both editing and writing it - for my club night next week. I have to never stop because when I do stop, that's when dangerous thoughts enter my mind.

As part of this new regime, I have also decided to increase my mental wealth by consuming as much knowledge as possible. Today, I spent the first half of the day at the Royal London Museum. It is based in the crypt of St Philip’s Church on Newark Street in Whitechapel.




It is a very well put together gem of a museum which marks the ongoing history of the Royal London through the centuries since it was established in 1740. I began by reading about the diet regimes for patients when the hospital first opened. A picture of the menu below:



I then stopped to watch a short film about one of the Royal London's most famous patients, Joseph Merrick aka The Elephant Man. The film interviewed modern day people with disabilities giving their views on Merrick's life and what people can learn from his case today.



There is also quite a lot of Merrick memorabillia on display including a model of a church which he made, his infamous hat and veil and various letters and artefacts that he owned and also his doctor Treves owned.






There is also a section on another one of the east end's notorious characters, Jack the Ripper. This part of the exhibition includes letters sent 'From Hell' from the Ripper to the senior member of the Royal London Trust, police clippings on the case and various pictures.







The museum, for those interested, is open Monday to Friday between 10am and 4.30pm and is free of charge.

D-Bird

I have nothing to do with modern journalism and everything to do with literature....

...but there are of course a few exceptions.....I'd just like to share one of the best articles I've read about us which was written by Dan Monsell for Rockfeedback.com which has hit right at the heart of what we're about:

http://www.rockfeedback.com/article.asp?nObjectID=6073

Thank you...
D-Bird

Unveiling our motherland

Here are two new songs expelled from the minds of birds and recorded at our recent rehearsal session. Enjoy! X- Bird

Unveil

She picks up the mask
With trembling hands
Traces its shape
Makes her numb, final plans

She marks her own eyes
With its own eyes
And kisses its lips
Dull, porcelain lips

The feel of its skin
Rubbing her skin
The shiver inside
Feels like its something to hide

The mask was never real
Won't stop from making you cold
This is what it feels like
To lie next to someone so cold

Unveil your eyes

D-Bird lyrics/bass/vocals, X-Bird bass/vocals, C-Bird Drums

unveil.mp3

Our Motherland

Father,
Father our motherland.

Turn it into,
Your own killing lands.

Killing fields turned blue, purple and red.
You turned me blue, purple and red.

Victory reigns over,
Lands forgotten.
Time to forget your mother,
In favour of your father.

Forget your mother.

X-Bird lyrics/vocals, D-Bird Bass, C-Bird Drums

motherland.mp3

UNVEIL

We had a wonderful session in the rehearsal studio today and wrote a new song entitled, 'Unveil'.

There is a twist to this song when we perform it live, which we haven't ever done before. If you want to know what it is, come and see us at Rough Trade East on Monday where we will be unveiling Unveil!

My lyrics below:

She picks up the mask
With trembling hands
Traces its shape
Makes her numb, final plans

She marks her own eyes
With its own eyes
And kisses its lips
Dull, porcelain lips

The feel of its skin
Rubbing her skin
The shiver inside
Feels like its something to hide

The mask was never real
Won't stop from making you cold
This is what it feels like
To lie next to someone so cold

Unveil your eyes

D-Bird

TOP RECORDS OF 2008 - SELFISH CUNT AND THE RAVEONETTES

Happy New Year folks!

Hope you are excited about the year ahead and its potential musical talents. 2008 has been a great year for bands no doubt. However the two most outstanding acts for me have been The Raveonettes and Selfish Cunt.

The Raveonettes released Lust Lust Lust at the end of 2007 to much critical acclaim. After the explosions caused by Whip It On, Chain Gang Of Love and Pretty In Black, I had extremely high hopes for the release but was also very confident that the band would carry on delivering their beautiful treats to their fans, which of course they did. However being true, constant, creative musicians and despite a hectic tour schedule and somehow making time for an exciting new solo project (Sune Wagner), the band still continue to treat their fans with utmost respect - something that keeps this band so humble and rare compared to most contemporary bands - and released 4 downloadable EPs in 2008: Sometimes They Drop By, The Beauty Dies, The Raveonettes Remixed and Wishing You A Rave Christmas. Being a devoted fan of the band's, this was a dream come true.


The Raveonettes

For those that haven't yet downloaded it, please visit http://www.myspace.com/theraveonettes and listen to the best music of 2008. You really won't be disappointed. Here's the video for Black/White which is on the Beauty Dies EP:



Now back to UK soil and the most outstanding live act of our generation released their greatly anticipated English Chamber Music album this year. Yes, that band being the one and only Selfish Cunt. Despite a tragic year, this band did what only true, genuine artists can find the faith to do - turn negative, life-changing experiences into explosive, raw, beautiful art. Catch the boys in London on January 22nd at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen with Ulterior, Electricity In Our Homes and us in support. Do buy this album, sit back and dwell on why we must remember that Britain is shit. It's because the politicians don't care and we don't care about politics. At least one small collective of musicians do, and are not afraid to remind us of it. And for that reason my dear friends, this album needs to be sitting in your record collection. http://www.myspace.com/ixnewyork

Here's the amazing video for England Made Me directed by our close friend and Lights Out video director, 241-24-7:


D-Bird