From:
Robin Merritt
ArtFRONT Presentations
(423) 400-4976
Appearing @ Barking Legs Theatre, 1307 Dodds Ave. Chattanooga
Saturday November 16th, 2013 with Bombadil
(An interview and live radio
performance is scheduled on Tommy Cotter’s WUTC 88.1 evening music show on Wed.
Nov. 13th 9pm.)
CD, “The Campfire”
(Red Marble Records)
www.birdswithfleas.com
Birds With Fleas is what happens when
banjo and ukelele meet the backbeat of rock and roll and the vocal barrages of
a gospel choir.
Former barbershop quartet and high school choir nerds Matt Siegel
(vocals/banjo/uke) and Spencer Karges (vocals/guitar/percussion) form the
frontline. Drew Daniels (drums) and James Glass (bass) provide the grooves for
your body. ~
(From their Bandcamp page) http://birdswithfleas.bandcamp.com/album/the-campfire
)
Regardless of your opinion of the
band’s name Birds With Fleas is at this time one of the tightest and
most potent stage acts on the local Chattanooga, TN music roster. Front man, singer and electric ukelele
wielding Matt Siegel has an easily recognizable, distinctive and melodic voice. Far from being gimmicky, he puts the plugged
in and amplified uke and banjo to excellent use as complex rhythm instruments
while the rest of the band fills up the stage with a sound that goes beyond the
rather subtle production quality on their first full length album “The
Campfire.” While we were waiting for a
good opportunity to showcase this act on Barking Legs Theater’s soundstage
Ramseur Records artists (home base of The Avett Brothers, among others) Bombadil, signed on to play Barking Legs and anyone
familiar with the Ramseur label’s artists’ style should have an immediate clue
why this local group was chosen to open for Bombadil with a full set of their
music.
Birds with Fleas opened up the
July 12th Nightfall Music performance to one of the larger early
crowds of the season and there was a notably enraptured attentiveness from this
audience at an event which is usually much more socially absorbed during the
opening band sets. It’s unclear how
much name recognition Birds with Fleas has generated locally since as of this
fall since they have only recently become entirely a local Chattanooga band but
we believe that after their upcoming series of events people will be saying “Oh
yeah those guys, they put on a great show!”
All songs are “Radio Safe” Those tracks most geared toward
radio airplay
are:
#2. Molly
#3. The Monster
#4. Take Me Back
#8. My Hollow Mind
#11. Douse The Flame (The most stripped down, simple track on the album featuring only
Matt Siegel’s voice with ukelele.)