Bluebird: The Two

Bluebird plays emo.

Not that I’d hold that against them — they’d probably prefer some term like “post-hardcore” to the old standby, newly-refreshed for emo bands that don’t want to be labeled as such, “indie rock.” Take your pick.

Bluebird plays music that’s kinda jangly, kinda melodic, kinda sung, kinda screamed kinda stuff. To me it’s kinda interesting, kinda not. Over time I’ve come to the realization that passionate, emotional rockin’ and melodic music does not come from the speakers of Mineral, the Promise Ring and Texas Is the Reason as much as it does from Cheap Trick.

While Bluebird doesn’t particularly sound like any of the above-mentioned bands, choosing to take cues from the much beloved and mourned Quicksand (who for all intents and purposes, perfected the style of music Bluebird aims to play), they don’t really do much of anything terribly exciting. There are a couple of jazzy, chaotic tunes in the vein of early Gravity Records bands like Angel Hair and Antioch Arrow and then some other stuff that reminds me of “annoying” bands like the Vehicle Birth, but the sum of these parts doesn’t add up to a cohesive whole.

Rather than feign interest in a band like Bluebird, I offer these words of wisdom to the aspiring hopefuls: Cheap Trick at Budokan. Albeit a live album, but one with a beginning, middle, and end, not to mention the fantastic skin-pounding by Bun E. Carlos.