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Show Life Monday • March 9, 2009 B3 Alyssa Lewis/UVU Review Andrew Bird, popular acoustic folk artist, performed at In the Venue on Feb. 25. The last time he performed in Utah was last summer, at the free Twilight Concert Series at Deer Valley. Andrew Bird performs new songs in Murray sity with a bachelor's degree in violin performance. Since then, the multi-instrumen"Andrew Bird is easy to talist has been inventing Appreciate musically because hauntingly beautiful music his style is so completely in- with lyrics that could paint a llfcttttttWftfthat he is not com- canvas. * parable to any other artist," "Artists tend to either said UVU student and recent stray too much from their concert attendee Benjamin original style or not be sufBuxton. ficiently experimental," said With the release of his UVU student Tyler Osmond. new album Noble Beast on "Andrew Bird has been very Jan. 20, Andrew Bird has steady in crafting his alproven himself once again. bums. Each one has been As has been demonstrated satisfyingly unique, and yet throughout each of his al- has remained undoubtedly bums, Bird is a creative true to Andrew Bird." prodigy. In his newest album, Bird Born in Illinois in 1973, once again displays his unBird began laying the foun- earthly abilities on violin, dations for his music when guitar, vocals and whistling. he picked up a violin at the He is accompanied by the age of four. As a teenager, he gifted Martin Dosh, Jeremy developed an eclectic taste Ylvisaker, and Mike Lewis, for Hungarian Gypsy music, each of whom handles mulearly jazz, country blues, tiple instruments as well. and South Indian music. The variant tempo creatIn 1996, Bird graduated ed by the interplay of numerfrom Northwestern Univer- ous dissimilar instruments is , JESSICA BURNHAM Life writer eerily stimulating in combination with Bird's airy whistling and soothing vocals. The lyrical brilliance of this album is overwhelming with lines like "Love of hate acts as an axis, first it wanes and then it waxes, so procreate and pay your taxes," which gets bluntly and beautifully to a cynical point. Bird has succeeded in creating his own ethereal universe with the release of Noble Beast, and in it we have the opportunity to experience a portion of his reclusive genius. "It is obvious that he is a master of every instrument he plays," said Provo resident Rebecca Ricks. "It's as if he's been playing from birth." Amazon.com He played at In the Venue Noble Beast, Bird's latest album, was released on Jan. 20. in Salt Lake on Feb. 25, and those who were fortunate "He is extremely versa- conducting a private symenough to attend fell prey to tile on stage; he'll be doing phony and we were the exBird's highly transcendental five things at once," Buxton elusive witnesses." performance. noted. "It was as if he was Bird's live cabaret is un- C O M I C B O O K R E V I E like anything attempted by another musician. "The complexity of a live ,-A» d .cp,Bir^show is aslounding. The multitude of instruments arid" the constant i to get the layering o^ sounds is such an elaborate process," Osmond said. Waiting until the pnd of the concert paid off because these UVU students had the~ opportunity to meet the man himself. "He was extremely introverted and authentic. He takes his music very seriously and came off as very unassuming," Buxton said. If you want to expand' your musical tastes, add Andrew Bird's Noble Beast to your collection. If given the opportunity to see Bird live in concert, his inherent abilities will blow your mind and you will develop a greater appreciation for who he is and what he does. W The Walking Dead It's really only a matter of time Drawn in stunning black and white, The Walking There are things in life Dead is far from your typical comic book tale. It is a you can count on, that you know for sure you will have story we all know, one of zombies infesting the world, to deal with one day. Remember the famous saying, wiping out most of mankind "Nothing is certain except and a small group of survivors that must learn to work death and taxes and the dead and live together in order to rising from their graves to survive the horrors of the feast on the living."? Well, in order to prepare for the world. Where The Walking Dead separates itself, is inevitable zombie holothat it never promises hope. caust, in between games of There is no cure, no army Left 4 Dead, read The Walkwaiting to save our surviing Dead. K Amazon.com BENJAMIN BAILEY Life writer vors, nothing. It is about survival, pure and simple. Writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard deliver the bleakest book on the shelf, and it is incredible. Each issue horrifies and pushes the limits of the horror genre in any medium. The characters are never safe, and just when you get attached to someone, they are consumed by the neverending wave of undead or worse yet, one of their fellow survivors. The Walking Dead can be hard to read at times, and that's part of what makes it so good. So, before there is no more room in hell and the dead begin to walk the Earth, read The Walking Dead. It's an awesome comic book and you might even learn a couple survival tips. If nothing else, it will keep you from running to the nearest shopping mall like an idiot when the undead begin to roam free. That's the first place they'll look for you. |