I don’t care where you grew up, every elementary school had a pair of weird brothers. You know the guys I’m talking about: would eat anything for a dollar, brought cat skeletons and unexploded WWII grenades for show-and-tell, wore corduroys in gym class. And at least once a year they contracted some sort of exotic dermatological condition that necessitated letters home to all parents in the district. If you don’t know the guys I’m talking about, well, I don’t know how to break this to you…

I have a pretty good feeling that Southern Illinois-based Ashton and Caleb Bird were those guys, but these days, things are looking pretty rosy for them. As Tweak Bird, they’ve recently completed back-to-back tours with Big Business and Tool, and will spend August on the road with Nick Olivieri’s Mondo Generator.  The duo is also set to release their self-titled full-length debut in August. Produced by Deaf Nephews (Dale Crover from the Melvins and Toshi Kasai from Big Business), this record thumbs its nose at the natural order of things, successfully grafting a space-heavy head of prog-rock onto a gaunt punk body. Perhaps they’ve gone too far, but the result is a handful of short, riffcentric, sci-fi pop songs that belie not only common DNA, but also a shared history of Bread, Star Wars action figures, smoking weed surrounded by fake wood paneling and 2112.

In addition to the pummelhouse drums and inhumane amounts of fuzz, Tweak Bird counts two secret weapons in their sonic arsenal. One is Caleb’s use of the baritone guitar, an instrument born of surf rock instrumentals and pitched between a regular guitar and bass, which provides for a heavier sound without resorting to a drop-D tuning or one of those messy 7-strings. The other is multi-instrumentalist and sometimes-third-band-member, John McCowan, who pops up sporadically on flute and saxophone to add an air of whimsy or skronk, as dictated by the tune. Throw in a sense of style that is beyond reproach and the best album cover of the year, and Tweak Bird is sure to have fans of Black Sabbath and Boba Fett sharing enthusiastic high-fives long after that rash has gone away.

MP3 : Tweak Bird – A Sun/Ahh Ahh

Tweak Bird/Mondo Generator On Tour
August 4th – Elbo Room, San Francisco, CA
August 6th – Dante’s, Portland, OR
August 7th – Studio 7, Seattle, WA
August 9th – Club Vegas, Salt Lake City, UT
August 11th – 3 Kings Tavern, Denver, CO
August 12th – Riot Room, Kansas City, MO
August 13th – Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis MN
August 14th – Frequency, Madison WI
August 15th – Double Door, Chicago, IL
August 16th – Southgate House, Newport KY
August 17th – Smalls, Hamtramck MI
August 18th – Bug Jar, Rochester NY
August 19th – Santos, New York, NY
August 20th – Middle East Upstairs, Cambridge, MA
August 21st – North Star Bar, Philadelphia PA
August 22nd – 37th & Zen, Norfolk VA
August 24th – Casbah @ Trenton Music Hall, Charlotte NC
August 25th – Stella Blue, Asheville NC
August 26th – Hi Tone Cafe, Memphis TN
August 27th – The Conservatory, Oklahoma City OK
August 28th – Emo’s, Austin TX
August 29th – Skillman Street Bar, Dallas, TX
August 31st – Launch Pad, Albuquerque NM
September 2nd – Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA