News

SO! Early last year I was picked up by an amazing booking agency in France called Jarring Effects. Some of the names you might recognize among their roster include Dalek, K-the-I???, Subtitle, Oddateee ect… They also happen to be a very cool record label which has been around for nearly 20 years. A huge force in the electronic/abstract music scene with their own record store, distribution, and festival. I had been trying to put an album out with them but they never seemed very interested…until I played Riddim Collision in Lyon last year. The festival was set in what seemed like an abandoned meat packing district, with our backstage area’s set up inside old giant walk-ins. Not only was it the best line-up I had seen at a festival but the sound system was IMPECCABLE! I absolutely destroyed my set…and made Val(the “chef”/my booker)proud. Apparently, after the show the Jarring crew all came by and high-fived Val one at a time. Shortly afterward I was approached by R;Zatz about making an EP with some Jarring producers. I was sent beats and over the course of a few months 4 tense and gritty songs emerged, from R;Zatz + Uzul (Kaly Live Dub Crew) + Led Piperz (High Tone Crew) +Grosso Gadgetto. Finally, on February 14th, Jarring Effects and I proudly present to you the “JFX meets bleubird” EP.
It will be available digitally on the JARRING EFFECTS WEBSITE

With a tour immediately to follow, STAY TUNED FOR THE DATES!!!!!!

Just So You Know
[audio:http://www.bleubird.org/audio/justsoyouknow.mp3|titles=Just So You Know]
In Just Us
[audio:http://www.bleubird.org/audio/injustus.mp3|titles=In Just Us]

CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE ORDER PAGE

A “swashbuckler” was “one who makes a noise by striking his own or his opponent’s shield with his sword … a swaggering bravo or ruffian.” Picture a cool stud of the late 15th or early 16th century wearing a sword and buckler (small shield often with a spike in the middle) on his belt and clanking the two together as he swaggers around town: “Clankity-clank; I’m a tough guy.”

Forged in the steel fires of an Ontario/Florida rap-workman’s union, Thesis Sahib and bleubird met by chance in 1990 on a Caribbean cruise rewarded to them and their families when they each became regional Nintendo Power Glove champions. It was during this cruise that the two fourteen years old drunks were thrown together randomly to perform Kris Kross’s “Jump Jump” at a youth karaoke contest. The two quickly formed a bond on stage when they began rapping KRS ONE and TOO Short lyrics over the hot Kris Kross beat. They spent the rest of the tom cruise together making frequent visits to the all you can eat ice cream bar, getting kicked out of the casino, club, and captain’s lodge, and free-styling mutiny on the open seas. It was over ten years later when the two met by chance once again in Halifax in 2001. By this time they had each developed into conquerors of musical and artistic barriers in their own right. Nomadic travelers on the constant move, they set out to make an album in 2003, doing some recordings in Orlando, Toronto, and Michigan – whenever they happened to be in the same place at the same time. Their efforts met with tragedy when, oddly, all hard drives they used crashed. The two song 7” (2003) and the bonus song on bleubird’s “Sloppy Doctor” release were all that survived.

To break the curse they decided the only way to complete a full album was to come together on neutral ground and write and record an entire new album in one shot. Their spirits bolstered by the newly appointed beat-mason Edison of Paper Vehicle, they came to the Grimm Image studio at the Inland Empire and completed the entire album in seven days. Once again the old curse struck! All the vocal files were mysteriously erased weeks after their completion. “FUCK!” they thought, “we must break the cycle!“ A month later, determined not to be beaten, they dropped everything to fly back out again and re-record. “FUCK!” was completed again, this time better and more cohesive, backed up in triplets and transported home safely in a metal case handcuffed to bird’s wrist.

The culmination of all this energetic, thoughtful, thematic and often humorous word play, along with imaginative production by Edison, is a short jaunt through the fast-paced ever-changing colorful world of Les Swashbuckling Napoleons. The final product was mixed by Vid Cousins, the mad scientist engineer of Monkey Puzzle Sound Studios, and mastered by commander masterer J. Lapointe for your pure sonic enjoyment. Clankity-clank.

”Seeing James in Hammer pants was like dancing with a magic Canadian rap beaver”
– bluebird

”Jacques reminded me of Bif from Back to the Future but with a stupider haircut”
– Thesis Sahib

The CD will be temporarily available through me for a limited time before it ships to select stores around the world.

CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE ORDER PAGE

Two Florida rap veterans, Protoman (DMG, Rawkus 50, FW4S) and Bleubird (Endemik, Grimm Image Records) finally trade verses on a track entitled “Guns Don’t Kill People (Florida Does)”. This funk inspired breakbeat produced by Dantanna also features a fury of cuts by DJ Rob Riggs (Scratch Academy). The Florida themed record is an ode to the randomness and dysfunctional hidden culture of “The Gunshine State”. Thanks to Jennifer Watson for this track.

Uncle Traveling bird #Thr3333333 from bird on Vimeo.

I recently returned to Montreal to record a new EP with Scott Da Ros+Sibitt, still working on a name for this project.
Enjoy some Heliodrome, cats, and spring snow! Soon you’re going to notice some changes around here, and the site might even be down for a few days but NOT TO WORRY!! things are happening, wheels are turning, flowers are blossoming, Mayim Bialik is returning my phone calls, and i am becoming a “freeebird.”

uncle traveling bird #2 from bird on Vimeo.

friends…
Your boy me is getting ready to embark on possibly the most exciting journey of my life…so far.
Dirty details to follow, but this here experiment is basically me learning how to shoot, edit, and present videos that are hopefully entertaining and interesting…eventually developing into a more comprehensive presentation of life on the road and the wonders it beholds. This footage was taken in October during my west coast run from Seattle to Hawaii with a rotating cast of delinquent gentlemen + rogue scholars . I do hope you enjoy

uncle traveling bird from bird on Vimeo.

see you soon
bird!

I was never much for following sports, but when I first moved to Miami my uncle told me a story about you. He and my aunt went to see a movie on opening night, they arrived late and had to sit apart, a nice young man who was sitting by himself noticed the situation and offered to move so they could sit together, that nice young man turned out to be you.(points) Shortly after you name kept coming up in the media for failing drug tests(points), and i also heard stories about the other players teasing you for your interest in things such as yoga and traveling.(points) Even though you were the leagues leading rusher, the media, your teammates, and jackoff radio hosts started turning against you for things that altogether made me start to like you. I was happy when you retired and went to study Ayurveda.(points points)

At some point around 2004 I was on tour in europe, I had a few days off in between shows which I used to travel back to Stockholm to see about a girl. She was the assistant to the promoter who organized a show for me the previous year. (One of the best shows I have ever played, it was Sole and I on the rooftop of the contemporary art museum at the center of the city, it was the night Ronald Reagan died, and our crowd was to march on the fascists the next day) So maybe it was just the magic of the night, but I felt a connection. We kept in touch and I arranged to come visit, I knew nobody else in Stockholm so upon arrival I checked into a hostel.
You and I noticed each other in the lobby, a slight nod of kinship , both of us Americans, dreadlocks, obviously rolling solo. You overheard me talking to the girl on the phone, joking about going clubbing. We were only making plans to meet at a bar for a drink. When i hung up you approached me and asked if i was going clubbing, I simply replied no and walked away. ( mind on the girl mind on the girl) You seemed a bit disappointed… The “date” was a flop, we had a few drinks, I was smitten, she went home.
I moped back to the hostel where I saw you again in the lobby, we sat next to each other for quite a while checking our emails or somberly surfing the web. I was in such a shit mood, I went outside to smoke a joint by myself then went up to my room and crashed. When I awoke in the morning I realized we were sleeping in the same room, we exchanged a brief “good morning” before we both went on our way. Not until a few days later when I was sitting on a train staring blankly out the window did I realize who you were! It was obvious from the jump that we would have gotten along, if I wasn’t so busy chasing skirt I could have made a friend. I can’t help but think that you might have even come along for a few shows.
I think about it every now and then and kick myself in the ass. Now when your name pops up I tend to pay attention. I’m happy you are back in the game and doing it your way. You could have conformed and made things a lot easier for yourself but you persisted on your path, I both admire and respect that. I place this experience on the shelf next to other missed opportunities in my life, like the lunch I should have taken with Slip-N-Slide records. Me+you+Trickdaddy could have been eating scrimps in South Beach right this moment, instead I’m in freezing Berlin grinding it out on my umpteenth unpublicized tour, scrambling to catch cheap flights and dragging my busted merch case around like a bum leg…and I couldn’t be happier.

this could have been us!