Andrew Bird took his myths to the bank with the lovely sound of whistling whispering wonder and dewy-eyed fratricide. The Suzuki trained violinist self released his debut album Music of Hair the same year he graduated from Northwestern University. He played with the Squirrel Nut Zippers over three albums before starting his own group Bowl of Fire on Rykodisk. Their first two albums Thrills and Oh! The Grandeur pursued a throwback swing sound; but their third album The Swimming Hour saw them shed those trappings for an eclectic 'jukebox' mix of styles. He self-released another solo album Weather Systems before moving to Righteous Babe Records to create Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs.
Bird produced the album with David Boucher, who also engineered the sessions with Dan Dietrich, Mark Greenberg, Mike Napolitano, Mark Nevers. The album includes Bowl of Fire's Kevin O'Donnell (on drums, percussion, and beats) and Nora O'Connor (on backing vocals); as well as Duane Denison on guitar; Pat Sansone and Ryan Hembrey on bass; Mark Ross on organ; and Andrew Bird on vocals, guitar, violin, and whistling.
Bird would reveal: "It doesn’t so much matter where I record; it’s more where I write. When I record I just need to find talented engineers and people to help me. But yeah, definitely what happened was I wrote most of the material for The Mysterious Production of Eggs a long time ago, before I moved out to the country. And I went out and fixed up this old barn and spent a whole winter putting in windows and dry-walling, and during all that kind of repetitive labor I wrote a lot of Weather Systems. And once I got out there and the place was done, and I was experimenting, the environment had an effect on me. But I was still carrying these songs that I wrote mostly in the city that were more dense. So I tried to make, almost four years ago now, Mysterious Production of Eggs, and I scrapped almost the whole thing, and went and made Weather Systems, which was more what I was hearing out there. So it took a long time to reconcile this new environment and all the sounds I was discovering from this major lifestyle change, it took a while for that to make sense with the songs I’d written like “Banking on a Myth” which has “weather systems” in it, “Skin, Is My”, “Opposite Day”. Those go way back...The whole process took me three tries to get this version of Eggs to make sense to my new changing sensibilities because they were changing so rapidly the songs could hardly keep up."
My dewy-eyed Disney bride, what has tried
Swapping your blood with formaldehyde?
Monsters?
Whisky-plied voices cried fratricide!
Jesus don't you know that you could've died
(You should've died)
With the monsters that talk, monsters that walk the earth
And she's got red lipstick and a bright pair of shoes
And she's got knee high socks, what to cover a bruise
She's got an old death kit she's been meaning to use
She's got blood in her eyes, in her eyes for you
She's got blood in her eyes for you
Certain fads, stripes and plaids, singles ads
They run you hot and cold like a rheostat, I mean a thermostat
So you bite on a towel
Hope it won't hurt too bad
My dewy-eyed Disney bride, what has tried
Swapping your blood with formaldehyde?
What monsters that talk, monsters that walk the earth
And she says I like long walks and sci-fi movies
If you're six foot tall and east coast bred
Some lonely night we can get together
And I'm gonna tie your wrists with leather
And drill a tiny hole into your head
Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
full album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIwDDkSFBCebL5J4vOfeiCDCF_SgCTpMg
1. "Intro" 1:05
2. "Sovay" 4:41
3. "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" 4:59
4. "Fake Palindromes" 2:52
5. "Measuring Cups" 2:51
6. "Banking on a Myth" 4:28
7. "Masterfade" 4:10
8. "Opposite Day" 4:31
9. "Skin Is, My" 3:36
10. "The Naming of Things" 4:57
11. "MX Missiles" 4:21
12. "Opposite Day Reprise" 1:08
13. "Tables and Chairs" 4:44
14. "The Happy Birthday Song" 5:03
