''Bird-Brains'' (stylized as ''BiRd-BrAiNs''
) is the debut album by American
lo-fi
Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...
musician Merrill Garbus' project
Tune-Yards
Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE-yArDs) is the American, Oakland, California–based music project of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner. Garbus's music draws from an eclectic variety of sources and utilizes elements such as loop pedals, ukulele, voca ...
. It was originally released as a
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
on
Marriage Records on June 9, 2009, and was re-released on August 17 by
4AD as a limited-edition pressing. It was released worldwide on November 16, 2009, with two bonus tracks.
The album was recorded almost exclusively by Garbus on a hand recorder and mixed using
Audacity. Speaking to Charlotte Richardson Andrews of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', she noted her instrumental limitations and how they led to a dependence on percussion: "I had no bass – literally, I didn't own one – so the drums had to be big."
Critical reception
''Pitchfork'' ranked ''Bird-Brains'' at number 44 on their list of the top 50 albums of 2009.
Track listing
*The vinyl edition does not include the track "" and instead ends with "Fiya".
References
External links
*
*
' Tune-Yards at
4AD
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bird-Brains
2009 debut albums
4AD albums
Tune-Yards albums
Marriage Records albums