Birdsongs of the Mesozoic
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Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is a musical group founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1980.
Birdsongs owes its origins to the 1978 breakup of the Boston post-punk band Moving Parts, which included future Birdsongs members Erik Lindgren and Roger Miller. Miller went on to form the seminal post-punk group Mission of Burma, while Lindgren concentrated on production work in his home studio. While the Parts' breakup had been civil, Lindgren felt the need for an act of overt reconciliation, and offered free studio time to his former bandmate should Miller have any non-Burma material he wanted to record. Miller had just written his first solo piano pieces in years, and jumped at the offer. Lindgren volunteered to provide some keyboard overdubs. Given that musical differences had led to the breakup of their earlier band, both musicians were surprised at the effectiveness of the collaboration. Burma tape-loop artist Martin Swope was then enlisted for further overdub work.
The recording project might have ended there had not local Boston record label Modern Method approached Miller and asked for a Burma track for a compilation album. Miller instead offered "Pulse Piece" from the sessions, naming the makeshift group "Birdsongs of the Mesozoic," a reference to a "Birdsongs of America" album that Swope had sampled during the sessions and to then-new theories about the dinosaur ancestry of birds (Miller having been a dinosaur aficionado as a young child).
Nothing further might have come from the project had not Modern Method also asked Miller if Birdsongs could perform at the album's 1981 record release party. For this performance, a lineup was assembled consisting of Miller on piano, Lindgren on synthesizer, Swope on guitar, and Rick Scott (who had played with Miller in Red Ants, the Ann Arbor, Michigan band he had been involved in before joining Moving Parts) on organ, with all members doubling on percussion instruments.
While there had been no intention to play more than the one gig, the band's reception was so positive that further shows were booked. The ensemble became a significant side project for Miller and Swope, and recorded a 6-song eponymous EP (virtually the entire repertoire at the time) for Burma's label Ace of Hearts.
When Miller's tinnitus worsened in 1982, the existence of Birdsongs as a quieter alternative was a significant factor in Miller's decision to end Mission of Burma. In fact, he stopped writing Burma material and began writing more aggressive material for Birdsongs, such as "Shiny Golden Snakes" (which became the lead track of their first full-length album, Magnetic Flip.) After Burma's breakup, Birdsongs became democratized, and Swope, Scott, and especially Lindgren began composing original material.
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic were entirely instrumental, and incorporated many disparate musical elements: "Very few bands have ever managed to straddle the worlds of modern classical music and rock as successfully as this one did." [1] In his liner notes for their Beat of the Mesozoic EP, Boston rock critic Eric Van dubbed them "the world's hardest-rocking chamber music quartet." Another favorite description came from the Boston Globe's Jim Sullivan: "classical-punk-jazz-car-wreck music."
In 1987 Miller left the group he founded, ironically to concentrate on his Maximum Electric Piano project, which he had recently begun as a side project to Birdsongs. Lindgren took over leadership of the group (and piano duties), while Miller was replaced by another Ann Arbor expatriate, saxophonist/keyboardist Steve Adams of Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet (who had shared many memorable bills with Birdsongs). Within six months, however, Adams was offered a position in the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and was replaced by Ken Field. This lineup recorded two albums for Cuneiform Records (the first featuring Adams as well).
Swope left in 1993 and was replaced by Michael Bierylo. This lineup has remained together and has recorded several furher albums for Cuneiform. The music of the current lineup has less punk and more modern classical and jazz colorings than that of the original, but is still very eclectic.
