Pitchfork

Always onboard to help out a chirping friend, Andrew Bird will soon contribute to Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak's latest dance performance, My Name Is a Blackbird.

While he isn't pulling on his own pair of tights quite yet, Bird, along with fellow musicians Mark Booth and Dave Pavkovic, is rolling with the drama crowd. All three artists will collaborate with Shanahan, providing the soundtrack to the Blackbird project, which will formally premiere at Chicago's the Building Stage on April 12-29, 2007.

To provide inspiration, Shanahan has created for each composer a wooden box housing associative objects, images, video, and text. Bird and the other artists will respond to these things with sound, creating up to 20 minutes of music and/or text.

Shanahan will then explore gender, sexuality, transformation, and language issues through movement and the collaborations with Bird, Booth, and Pavkovic. Bird will accompany a solo dance and play a short instrumental set. No plans have been made to release this music. Dramaturg Leslie Danzing, costume designer Heidi Dakter, filmmaker Nadia Oussenko, and lighting designer Josh Weckesser also contributed to My Name Is a Blackbird.

If April 2007 seems a long way off, we can still look forward to Blackbird's kick off event, the Blackbird Party, set to go down on October 21 at Chicago's High Concept Laboratories. Attendees can expect performances from both Shanahan and Bird, an advance screening of excerpts from Oussenko's upcoming documentary on the making of My Name Is a Blackbird, and a display showing the aforementioned boxes.

As previously reported, Bird and buddy Martin Dosh will launch a U.S. trek in mid-September. Also on the way: a series of solo October shows benefitting the Chicago Short Film Brigade, a new non-profit for which Bird serves on the board of directors. Brigade curator Xan Aranda will preface each set by presenting a selection of short films from Russia, Switzerland, Lebanon, Chicago, Seattle, and more.

Then, come November, Bird will do two back-to-back gigs hometown gigs in Chicago. Supporting acts have not been confirmed at this time.

In addition, busy Bird's Fingerlings 3 arrives next month and will include several live selections from Bird's upcoming record, as well as other tracks from the last few years. Which reminds us to remind you: Bird is in the middle of recording the follow-up to last year's The Mysterious Production of Eggs at his rural Illinois barn, Chicago's Electrical Audio, and various Minneapolis studios. The disc will arrive in early 2007, featuring guest contributions from Dosh, Haley Bonar, and Chris Morrissey. Producer Ben Durrant also lends a hand.

Track titles include "Dark Matter", "Plasticities", "Sycophants", and the tentatively titled "The Armchair Apocalypse".

Dates:

09-16 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater *#
09-17 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue *#
09-19 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater *#
09-20 San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern *#
09-21 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre *#
09-22 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *#
09-26 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall Community Center *#
09-27 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater *#
09-28 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey *#
09-29 Vancouver, British Columbia - Media Club *
09-30 Bellingham, WA - Nightlight *#
10-06 Dubuque, IA - Voices Warehouse Gallery
10-07 Cedar Rapids, IA - C.S.P.S.
10-13 Minneapolis, MN - Bryant Lake Bowl
10-14 Madison, WI - Stage Door at Orpheum Theatre
10-21 Chicago, IL - High Concept Laboratories (The Blackbird Party) ^
11-24 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium
11-25 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium

* with Martin Dosh
# with Cass McCombs
^ with Molly Shanahan