The Bye Bye Blackbirds

The Bye Bye Blackbirds

The Bye Bye Blackbirds performing at The Starry Plough, Berkeley, CA, on September 21, 2013. L-R: Lenny Gill, Bradley Skaught, Aaron Rubin.
Background information
Origin Oakland, California, U.S.
Genres Indie rock, power pop
Years active 2005 (2005)–
Labels American Dust, Rainbow Quartz
Associated acts Belle Da Gama
Members Bradley Skaught
Aaron Rubin
Lenny Gill
Ian Lee
KC Bowman
Past members William Duke
Michael Derrick
Chuck Lindo
Ian Robertson
Ali Abbors

The Bye Bye Blackbirds are an Oakland, California-based indie rock and power pop band, fronted by guitarist and vocalist Bradley Skaught. The San Francisco Chronicle described their work as "British Invasion guitar-pop with a twinge of country and roots," in which "disparate rock influences – '60s rock, '70s power pop, '80s college radio and indie rock – come together for catchy, harmony-laden songs."[1]

Rock critic Tris McCall wrote that the band is "firmly established as one of the best and hardest-working independent power-pop outfits in Northern California," with songs that "contain monster singalong hooks."[2]

Background

Bradley Skaught, the group's 40-year-old principal songwriter and frontman, was originally from Tacoma, Washington.[3] Skaught began taking drum lessons while in second grade.[4] He later moved to Oakland, California, where his musical career included a stint as drummer for Yuji Oniki, after which Skaught became better known as a guitarist and vocalist.[5] His vocals have been called "distinctive and lovely,"[6] "a unique drawl reminiscent of Tom Petty",[7] and likened to John Lennon.[8]

Skaught was the founder of the band Belle Da Gama, which included Ian Robertson. The name Belle Da Gama was taken from the Salman Rushdie novel The Moor's Last Sigh.[5] Belle Da Gama recorded one album, Garden Abstract, released in 2001 on 125 Records.[5][9]

In 2005, Skaught and Robertson disbanded Belle Da Gama and formed The Bye Bye Blackbirds.[4] The new group was named after the 1926 jazz standard Bye Bye Blackbird.[1] Skaught and Robertson, both guitarists, recruited drummer Lenny Gill and bass player William Duke online.[4] In forming the new band, Skaught and Robertson decided on a "back-to-basics approach" based on "fundamental things we loved as listeners – songwriting, harmony, cool guitar parts and sounds."[10]

Recordings

Honeymoon (2006)

The Bye Bye Blackbirds released their debut recording, an EP called Honeymoon, in 2006. Bill Swan, of the indie band Beulah, produced the seven-song EP.

In a review, Richie Unterberger likened the songs to the "late-'70s power pop of Elvis Costello," also finding similarities in approach with Badfinger and the Beatles.[11] Skaught later referred to Honeymoon as "a bit embarrassing to me, although I like a couple songs and I love the sound... It works to me as a kind of statement of intent, but it makes me squirm to hear it."[4]

Apology Accepted and Houses and Homes (2008)

Houses and Homes
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]

The group released their second EP, Apology Accepted, and their first full-length album, Houses and Homes, on the American Dust label in 2008.[12]

Unterberger likened Houses and Homes to British Invasion bands, with "tunes and the upper-register vocals [that] often echo some of the poppier Beatlesque groups of yore," praising the album's sensitive lyrics and "upbeat guitar-oriented pop/rock with a tinge of the bittersweet."[12] In contrast to the album's dominant pop sound were the dreamy instrumental "Next Door," and the tenser, Brian Eno-like ambient track "Murray Morgan's Last Dream."[12]

Skaught called Houses and Homes "satisfyingly better than Honeymoon to me.... We experimented a lot – goofy stuff with tape echoes and lots of layers."[4] The bluegrass-tinged song "The Ghosts Are All Right" was featured in the book Music: What Happened?, which named it as a favorite for that year, describing the song as "a Byrds-worthy meditation on history and responsibility in a local community."[13]

Apology Accepted, a download-only EP, included "Monster Eyes," a song written with novelist Jonathan Lethem from "lyrical fragments" of his novel You Don't Love Me Yet, and performed with Lethem at a reading.[14][15] The title track of Apology Accepted was a cover of a song by The Go-Betweens.

Fixed Hearts (2011)

Fixed Hearts
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[16]

Before recording 2011's Fixed Hearts, bass player William Duke, who had previously shared songwriting responsibilities with Skaught, left the band.[4] Skaught stated that writing all of the songs on Fixed Hearts was "liberating" and that the album benefited from his resulting confidence, and from the contributions of new bass player Aaron Rubin and producer Paul Tyler.[4]

The title is a reference to drummer Lenny Gill's then-recent heart surgery, as well as to the protagonists of the songs, who emerge from heartbreak with their own hearts repaired.[16]

Reviewing Fixed Hearts, the Aquarian Weekly cited the "general giddiness of the album," moving from a "nostalgic and swinging vibe" through songs with a "country-pop sound" and "pulsing drums," to the "peaceful" final tracks.[17]

AllMusic's Jack Rabid wrote that the album had the "brightly ringing, polished/unthreatening, anodyne" 1960s pop vibe of a "groovy guitar pop party" where "nice guys finish first and get the girl in the finale."[16] The review cited Skaught's "easy sincerity and the group's harmonic gifts," embracing a "Panglossian panoply of this period from when they were pups, cutting in country-pop, folk, and—heck yeah—a horns-laden opener with bits of Memphis soul."[16]

We Need the Rain (2013)

We Need the Rain
Studio album by The Bye Bye Blackbirds
Released November 12, 2013
Recorded 2012–2013
Length 40:03
Producer Paul Tyler, KC Bowman

Production notes

The group's 2013 album, We Need the Rain, was produced by Paul Tyler, except for two tracks produced by KC Bowman (of Agony Aunts and Corner Laughers). The album marks Ian Robertson's final contributions as a member, prior to his departure to form a solo project, Black Butterfly Gang.[18]

Bradley Skaught in July 2013, performing with Game Theory at memorial for Scott Miller

Skaught dedicated We Need the Rain to Scott Miller, his "musical mentor."[3] Miller was not involved with the album, but Skaught told the San Francisco Chronicle that Miller's death in April 2013 was "the most painful and devastating blow," leading Skaught to consider the album "a kind of anchor, something to channel all that chaos through ... It's the first record we've made that we couldn't take to him and get that final vote of confidence on."[3]

Critical response and reviews

We Need the Rain was named one of the "Top 20 Releases of 2013" by Goldmine, with critic John M. Borack citing guitars that "jangle, strum and get muscular when they need to."[8]

The San Francisco Chronicle described the album as having "sweetly melancholy jingle-jangle and satisfyingly gutsy guitar and bass parts" with "soulful crunch."[3] Reviewer Bill Kopp wrote in Musoscribe that "chiming guitars, ear candy hooks, punchy guitar riffage, tight vocal harmonies" provide the emotional and "visceral punch" of power pop.[6] In Dirty Impound, Dennis Cook wrote, "Every tune practically shimmies out of the speakers, cool small details etched into ceaselessly ear-snagging melodies as sweet, gently yearning voices sing about love and the weather in ways that make both seem brand new."[19]

According to Tris McCall of the Newark Star-Ledger, the album took a new and "more aggressive approach" in which "guitars still twinkle and shimmer, on occasion, but this time around, they growl, twist, stutter and snap, too." McCall wrote, "Although Skaught's essential optimism is always visible," this "isn't always a happy album," with songs "both more direct and more discontented" than Skaught's prior work. "Yet it is the deepest, gutsiest and most rewarding set in the band's discography, and it points the way forward for a project that once felt like a formal exercise in songcraft."[2]

Discography

Albums and EPs

Year Title Details Format Label
2006 Honeymoon EP self-released
2008 Apology Accepted EP American Dust (DAD-106)
2008 Houses and Homes CD American Dust (DAD-107)
2011 Fixed Hearts CD Rainbow Quartz
2013 We Need The Rain All tracks written by Bradley Skaught (BMI) except as noted..  LP, CD self-released

Various artists compilations

Year Title Details Format Label
2009 Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill Track 12: "There's a Rugged Road" (4:04) CD American Dust (DAD-109)

Collaborations

Year Artist Title Format Label
2014 Dr. Frank & The Bye Bye Blackbirds "Even Hitler Had A Girlfriend" b/w "Population: Us" 7" single Good Land Records[20]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Van Dyke, Michelle Broder (September 23, 2010). "The Bye Bye Blackbirds at the Hemlock". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2014-01-10.
  2. 1 2 McCall, Tris (November 15, 2013). "We Need The Rain". CD reviews. Newark Star-Ledger. NJ.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-14.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Chun, Kimberly (November 13, 2013). "The Bye Bye Blackbirds rock out". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2013-11-15.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hinely, Tim (2012). "Some Words with Bradley Skaught of the Bye Bye Blackbirds". Dagger Zine. Archived from the original on 2012-06-18.
  5. 1 2 3 "Belle Da Gama". Artists. 125 Records. Archived from the original on 2013-08-13.
  6. 1 2 Kopp, Bill (October 21, 2013). "Album Review: The Bye Bye Blackbirds — We Need the Rain". Musoscribe. Archived from the original on 2013-11-13.
  7. ↑ O'Neal, Chris (August 11, 2011). "You say hello, I say Bye Bye: The Bye Bye Blackbirds' Bradley Skaught on standing out from the crowd". Ventura County Reporter. Archived from the original on 2014-01-11.
  8. 1 2 Borack, John M. (February 25, 2014). "Top 20 Releases of 2013". Goldmine. Archived from the original on 2014-02-25.
  9. ↑ "Garden Abstract: Belle Da Gama". CD Baby. Archived from the original on 2009-09-24.
  10. ↑ Ryan, Ashley (June 28, 2009). "Bye Bye Blackbirds share their unique sound with the Bay Area". San Francisco Music Examiner.
  11. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "The Bye Bye Blackbirds: Honeymoon". AllMusic.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Unterberger, Richie. "The Bye Bye Blackbirds: House and Homes". AllMusic.
  13. ↑ Miller, Scott (2010). Music: What Happened?. 125 Records. p. 224. ISBN 9780615381961.
  14. ↑ Rimler, Jesse (November 16, 2013). "Twirl Radio presents The Bye Bye Blackbirds (Record Release Party!) with special guests The Orange Peels and Jesse Rimler (of Kapowski)". Ticketfly. Archived from the original on 2014-02-27.
  15. ↑ "Monster Eyes". A jumped-up pantry boy. July 16, 2009. Archived from the original on 2014-02-27.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Rabid, Jack. "The Bye Bye Blackbirds: Fixed Hearts". AllMusic.
  17. ↑ Smith, Roz (August 10, 2011). "The Bye Bye Blackbirds: Fixed Hearts". The Aquarian Weekly. Archived from the original on 2014-01-11.
  18. ↑ Robertson, Ian (2013). "Black Butterfly Gang". Caveat Lector. Archived from the original on 2013-05-13.
  19. ↑ Cook, Dennis (October 3, 2013). "Impounded Inquiries: The Bye Bye Blackbirds". Dirty Impound. Archived from the original on 2014-02-27.
  20. ↑ "Doctor Frank & the Bye Bye Blackbirds". Artists. Good Land Records. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-05-02.
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