Bird Dog is a indie/punk band from Michigan that is known for its stage antics. The band destroys household appliances, throws cardboard around, dresses up in strange costumes, and other things on stage. The group began as a dance punk band and has since developed strong indie rock influences. They have been described as "Arctic Monkeys meeting The Faint and beating up The Dead 60s while kissing Rancid."

Members include: Alex O'Dell-vocals/guitar, Jordan Putnam-Keyboards, Mike Carmen-Bass, John Hurlahe-Guitar/Vocals, and John Coyle-Drums. Bird Dog finished their first CD, named Disco Thunder, in mid August of 2007. They have now released their second CD, entitled You Are Only As Tall As The Grass Grows. You can download all tracks for free at www.birddogtheband.com.

www.myspace.com/birddogtheband

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It started with Aaron Mendelsohn and Mike Drucker, both from Montclair, New Jersey, about 3 years ago in Brooklyn. They played with most of the drummers and bassists in New York City before finding the perfect fit with Jesse Bilotta and Nick Burleigh. Jesse holds it together, cool and collected behind the drums. Nick and Mike both play guitar, violin, and bass, trading babies for different songs. Aaron sings and plays guitar.

The songs are built around the lyrics, dark and playful. The part-writing reflects their tone. Chord progressions are broken down to their core and then built back up with melodic guitar and violin parts. The bass and drums bring drive and tension to the songs with shifting rhythms. The vocal melodies circle the chord progressions, sometimes light-hearted, sometimes wild.


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The latest OCTANT LP contains music performed by hand-built digitally controlled and solenoid actuated instruments. Steam, bellows, and clockwork would seem to be appropriate tools for the ghostly powers directing this orchestra of homemade acoustic automata. Brooklyn-based songwriter and tinkerer Matthew Steinke created these devices to accompany himself in a musical menagerie he has dubbed Octant. Menacing clouds of reverberating discord give way to toy piano chimes synchronized with chirping melodica, booming bass drum, and mournfully wheezing harmonium, all oddly juxtaposed with Steinke's warm guitar melodies. The songs lurch like a haunted Model T from childlike singsong to dense mechanized arrangements, from triumphal player-piano chaos to spare, melancholy chamber pop. Fractured and familiar, as full of nostalgic yearning and doomed hope as a Ouija-board encounter with a beloved departed grandparent, these unresolved gems suggest the sweet suffocation of an abandoned pawn shop crammed with all the relics that make up our shared musical imagination.

"...tender, cerebral music, aided by tiny, idiosyncratic robot companions who truly feel more like supportive band mates than automated devices" - Benjamin Wigler for The Deli NY "

I can't fathom how one could properly put into words the performance but it was an unsuspectingly beautiful and oddly touching experience. How is it that a show comprised mostly of a robotic band provided far and away the most intimate show of CMJ 2010?" - Avalanche Leed AP for The Sound of Indie

Octant was created in 1998 as the ongoing solo project of Matthew Steinke, the frontman of Olympia, Washington's Mocket and Seattle's Satisfact. He produced Miranda July's spoken word album, "The Binet Simon Tests". Octant has toured with and opened for The Black Heart Procession, Quasi, Miranda July, and Built to Spill. Steinke studied art and analog electronic music at The Evergreen State College, and received his MFA in Art and Technology Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited and performed with his robotic inventions all over the country in festivals, academic institutions, art galleries, and rock venues.

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