Musician Andrew Bird may not be well known to the masses (though he does have a song featured on the upcoming “Muppets” movie soundtrack and has played on both Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien), but his profile has risen steadily in the indie-rock community since his early days playing with Swing revival outfit The Squirrel Nut Zippers and later with his short-lived band Bowl of Fire and in his subsequent solo recordings.
Now the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist is the subject of a new documentary entitled “Andrew Bird: Fever Year”, which premiered at the New York Film Festival earlier this month. The film follows Bird on his 2009 concert tour (comprised of 165 dates), during which he suffered from persistent sickness (hence the title). The documentary has been noted for functioning as a deeply personal portrait of the artist, who’s become legendary among indie music enthusiasts for his passionate live performances.
The film is the debut of director Xan Aranda, who got to know Bird by working on two of his earlier music videos. Unfortunately, unless you catch it on the festival circuit it’s unlikely you’ll ever get to see the documentary, as at this point Bird (who owns the film) has expressed a desire that it not be distributed past its festival run (which kinda sucks for Aranda, no?).
Bird recently wrote the score (his first feature-length) for the Jonathan Segal indie “Norman” starring Dan Byrd, Emily VanCamp, Richard Jenkins and Adam Goldberg.
Anyway, you can watch the trailer for the film below (followed by a list of upcoming concert dates), which offers at least a glimpse into the allegedly “private” Bird’s quirky, off-center personality.
Upcoming tour dates:
Nov-10 Braddock Carnegie Library Braddock, PA
Nov-15 Atwood Concert Hall: Alaska Ctr. For The Performing Arts Anchorage, AK
Dec-03 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
Dec-21 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Chicago, IL
Dec-22 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Chicago, IL
Jan-12 Hawaii Theatre Honolulu, HI